Romans chapter 12, verse 1 and
2. I beseech you, therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service. And be not conformed to this
world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God. I want you to focus, if you would,
on verse 2, where he says, be not transformed, excuse me, be
not conformed to this world, but be transformed. And he says
how to do it? By the renewing of your mind.
And you could also interpret that, also be transformed by
the renewed mind you already have that God's given you. I
think they both go together if you look at it like that. Let's
pray. Father, thank you so much for your precious word. Thank
you for this church. Thank you for the privilege to
worship you this morning. Thank you for your son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Thank you, Father, that you're so merciful and so
gracious, and we can sing about your faithfulness. You're faithful to your people,
and you give us just what we need every single day, and there's
mercy for every day. And we pray today, Father, that
all that we do would honor Christ, that you would magnify, honor,
and glorify your son through us today. And that we leave here
saying, it's been wonderful. We've been with the Lord. We
spent time with God. We worshiped you. And Christ was honored in
all we do. We thank you, Father. We pray
that you would put Christ on our hearts and in our minds.
In his name we pray. Amen. I want to begin this morning,
first thing, I want to give a little introduction about how I understand
the word of God is to be approached. Then secondly, I want to focus
in on verse two and interpret verse two in light of the context,
which would be what goes before it as the foundation and what
comes after it as instruction to build on. Actual imperative
instructions coming behind that and tell you exactly what to
do. It doesn't leave us wondering, what do you do to be renewed
in the spirit of your mind? I would say, first of all this
morning, concerning the Word of God, it is vitally important
in my understanding to be faithful to God's Word, is to stand toe-to-toe
with every single scripture in God's Word, interpret it as it's
written, and that every word means what it says. And if it
doesn't mean what it says, then how are we ever going to know
what it means? We'll never know what it means
if it doesn't mean what it says. If you study God's Word and you
find an understanding of God's Word and you say, well, I think
that's a spiritual application. I think there's something there
more than just what's plain. That's fine. But don't ever go
back and say, because of how I see that now, that means those
words don't really mean that. Then you messed up. It either
means what it says or it doesn't. So we stand toe-to-toe with God's
Word and we're honest with God's Word and we stick with it and
we understand that it's inherent. That means it's no mistakes.
inspired, God-breathed, authoritative, what it says we're to do, Word
of God. And it's not only that, but it's
sufficient. We believe in the sufficiency
of Scripture. The Word of God is everything that we need. We are thoroughly furnished unto
all good works. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect,
fully complete, thoroughly furnished into all good works. Everything
we need is in the Word of God. We study other things, I understand,
to help us understand the Word of God, but we don't really need
any supplemental material. Everything we need is in the
Word of God. And the reason I'm saying that is because the way
we're going to approach this text today is placing it in its context
and understanding that you interpret text and you interpret words
by the context that they're put in. By the way, you know, every
Dictionary you find Bible dictionary, and they're good. I'm glad to
have it Every Greek Hebrew dictionary every in your linear. They're
all written by men Every single one of them not saying I'm not
glad that we have them, but they're all written by men But the Word
of God is perfect and can be considered perfect and whenever
you're interpreting scripture with other scriptures You can
be sure you're on the right track The grass wither if the flower
fadeth, but the Word of our God shall stand forever And we believe
that, and we believe it's perfect, and we understand that. And that's
what's so important in approaching the Word of God. And I can tell
you, as a preacher, I've always been extremely organized. Always. I never get in a pulp without
having everything just perfectly lined out. Don't have that this
morning. So we're just going to look at
this text and pray that God lead us well and be with us. Back to Romans chapter 12, verse
2. Be not conformed to this world. Being conformed to this world
means you're going to follow after, you're going to be like this
world. And Christians are capable of doing that. Now, if you keep
doing that, you're probably going to prove that you're not really
a Christian. But God's people can do that, or He wouldn't be
telling this church that. Don't go along and conform yourself
to the world. He said, but what? Be transformed. There's a difference of being
conformed and transformed. Conformed means I'm going to
look like this. I'm going to go with that. I'm going to do
that. Transformed means you're being changed. There's some change
happening. Something's going on. Something's
different. You're different than the world. Being transformed
is what being born again is all about. You're taken from one
thing to another thing. You live in the human worldly
kingdom, and you've been transformed, translated out of that kingdom
into the kingdom of God's dear son, and it's a miraculous thing.
Lost Wife was translated from the human kingdom into the minimal
kingdom. You see how that works? Nebuchadnezzar
was translated out of the human kingdom into the animal kingdom.
When God saved us, he took us out of this world and put us
into the kingdom of God. Now, we're still in this world,
but he opened our eyes where we can see we're born again,
we see the kingdom of God, we enter into the kingdom of God,
we're transformed. We live like that. not conformed
to this world, but like that. And he says, why? That you may
prove, you may test, make sure you know. God doesn't need to
be tested or proved for his self. By the way, he didn't have a
problem with anything going on with you. He didn't have a problem with your
sin, he didn't have a problem with your life. You have problems, he doesn't.
And so we test that, and we test this. Notice, let me prove what
is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. for you.
You can test it and you can know it. Now, as I said, we're going
to interpret this by putting a foundation to it, what's gone
before and instructions as to what's afterwards. So we'll understand
how to do that. How do I do this? How do I prove
and test what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of
God for my life? By the way, what does that mean?
What is God's good will? What's good will? What's written
in his word? It's revealed. We have that. We know it's good.
We know it's right. We know it's good. Does that mean it always
happens exactly that way? No, but there's that acceptable will
also. What is that? That's the will of God in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Everything that's acceptable
with God is through the Lord Jesus Christ. So praise God.
Everything this Bible says that's good for us to do or to be, He's
done it all for us. And then we have that acceptable
will of God, which is Christ Himself. That means He did it.
It's accepted. We're accepted in Christ. Praise
the Lord. Knock on oak, period. We're accepted in the Lord Jesus
Christ in that perfect will of God. What is the perfect will
of God? Well, the perfect will of God
is what he's determined before the foundation of the world to
happen, and that's every single thing that ever occurs. There's
not one random molecule in the universe. God's in control of
all of it, and he determined it all, and he's carrying it
all out, and he's working on it. So you may prove what is
that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. All of that's
gonna happen. How do you do that? What are
we talking about? He's talking about getting your life, and
there's a way to do it, in line with God's perfect will. You
say, what's that mean? I thought, well, I was already
accepted. You are accepted in Christ, and everything's fine. If you
get off track of that, you're never gonna get this. But you come to a place
in your life, and this teaches exactly how to do that, where
you're walking in the good will of God, and you're wanting the
things that God wants for your life. And it lines up exactly
with what's predetermined, by the way, everything does anyway.
But there's such a blessing in that, that you're not conformed
to this world, but you're transformed. And we're going to talk about
how that happens. We're going to talk about why he's saying to do it and
how it happens. Why is he saying to do it? He
says, I beseech you, I beg you, I'm pleading with you, that you
present your bodies, that's your physical body, your life, everything
about you, as a sacrifice. Give yourself to the Lord. What? Everything. You're talking about
what I gave the Lord, buddy. What's reasonable? He's such
a reasonable service. It just makes sense. After what He's
done for you, that everything is His. Count all things lost
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, of
whom I've suffered the loss of all things that do count them
but dumb, that I may win Christ. He's teaching us that we could...
He's saying, I beseech you, I beg you. Why? By the mercies of God. That's what he's talked to us
about in the first 11 chapters. The mercies of God. The Book
of Romans is the greatest treatise ever written in the history of
the world on the doctrine of salvation. And he teaches us
in the Book of Romans that none of us have any righteousness
of our own. By the way, you never will. You
realize that. You might commit some righteous
acts and deeds and God's working that in you, that's fine. But
it's all of Christ. And he teaches us in chapter
three that there's none righteous, not a Jew, not a Gentile. And
how God saves us through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
How he sent his son into this world to die for our sins. And
then how after that happens, God sends his spirit into our
heart to help us understand that and enjoy that. And there's a
new life that we have. And we were servants of sin,
but now we've become servants of righteousness. God's done
something in us. And when that life comes, then that's when
we say, The fact that I would not do, that's what I do. The
things that I do, they're the things that I wouldn't do. And
I find a rule, when I would do good, evil's present with me,
and it's a struggle. But he says, that rule is a good
thing. You say, that's not a good thing to fail all the time. Well,
the fact that you hate it when you do, that's a good thing. And then he cries out, who's
gonna deliver me from this body of death? Who's gonna do that?
I thank God through Jesus Christ, my Lord, who giveth us the victory.
When you have that experience in your life, you know you're
born again. You know you're one of God's children. I want to, but I can't.
But I want to real bad. My real desire is I want to serve
God with everything I have. I don't ever want to fail. I
don't ever want to sin. But then it happens. Then I hate myself. And then what am I going to do?
It's going to be Christ. There's going to be nothing.
And then the very next chapter, chapter 8, Romans says, therefore
now, because of that, no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
There's no condemnation because That struggle is there, and if
there's going to be any, we'd have it because of that. But
that struggle just proves that we're changed, and that God's
done a work in our heart, and we're a new person, and that
Christ is going to deliver us. And there's a new law, and the
Spirit and the life of Christ made me free from that law of
sin and death. And what the law could not do,
the law couldn't do it because it's weak through my flesh. I
don't have the ability. God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh, condemned sin in the flesh for me. I couldn't do that, so
he did that for me. He did every bit of it for me.
And so Paul comes up here to chapter 12 and he says, listen,
do you understand what I've taught you? I'm begging you, give your
life completely to him. If you want to walk in the will
of God and you want to have peace in your life and you want to
really serve God and you want to experience what God has for
you, look at that teaching and think, what could I not do for
God? Give your life to Him, and when
you do that, what happens if we understand these instructions?
Your mind remains renewed. You walk in the perfect will
of God. There's a peace that passes all understanding that
comes with being focused on Christ, which that's all about. That's
what it's all about, by the way. And so, if we look here in verse
2, he says, don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind. What's he talking about? Where's
the battle? It's in your mind. After you're saved, the battle's
in your mind. There's a war going on in your mind. Let me give
you the first place I want to go is 1 Corinthians chapter 10.
Or 2 Corinthians chapter 10, please. Because now, how do we
do this? We know why we're doing it, because
He's been so merciful to us. We shouldn't live like the rest
of this world. We should be transformed. 2 Corinthians chapter 10. And
it's all about the mind. How do we get our mind right
in the will of God? Notice here in chapter 10, beginning in verse
3. For though we walk in the flesh,
we do not war after the flesh. You understand that, right? We're
still in this flesh, we still live in this, and we still have
sin in our body. By the way, when the Holy Spirit
comes into us, it doesn't make our flesh better. You're never
going to make your flesh better. Your flesh is still there, still
fighting, still struggling. You just have a new spirit man
there that never wants to sin and always wants to serve God.
That's the battle going on. How do you fight that battle?
Well, here we see that it says we walk after the flesh. We live,
I mean, excuse me. Though we walk in the flesh,
we don't war after the flesh. We don't fight fleshly things,
worldly things. The weapons of our warfare are
not carnal. You can't take a gun and fight
yourself spiritually. You can't take a club and fight
the devil with it. It's not going to work. So what
do we do? Our weapons aren't carnal, but
they're mighty. They're mighty through God. What weapons do
we have? Well, it's going to sound like
preacher rhetoric, but obviously the Word of God. We know the
Word of God. We hide the Word of God away
in our heart that we might not sin against God. Stay faithful
to church. Keep praying. Trust the Lord. There's some good ones right
there. That'll keep you busy right there. Trust what His Word teaches you.
Stay faithful to serving Him in His church. Stay in prayer. That's enough right there. Those
are weapons that you have that aren't worldly. Those are spiritual
weapons that you have to fight. And what are you doing? You're
protecting your mind. Pulling down a stronghold. What's a stronghold?
Something in your mind that's got you thinking differently,
conforming to the world. Well, this can't be because I
know that's got to be different. I can see it with my eyes. Look
at that. And by the way, we walk by faith and not by sight. Somebody
starts telling you something, you start thinking, well, I see
that, and pulling you away. Maybe you have problems in your life,
you want to give up, so you start thinking bad thoughts. Whatever
it is, you have thoughts in your mind keeping you from serving
the Lord as you should, enjoying Christ as you should, and those
things are like strongholds. And it says, these weapons that
we have, and we just need a few, prayer, staying in the Word of
God, staying in church, Trusting God's word by faith? Exercising
the faith God's given you? Will it cast down imaginations? That's what those things are
when they pop in your mind. They're imagination. I'm just imagining. I'm assuming
stuff I don't even know. I'm worried to death about it.
And I don't even know because God has it already determined,
but I don't. So I worry. And I have imagination. It's imagination. Just imagine
it and what's going to happen. And that's a stronghold in my
mind to hold me back. And every high thing that exalts itself
against the knowledge of God, what's that? being way too small
for God's Word. You already know. You don't have
to tell me what the Bible says, I can see it, I know. That kind
of thinking is, there's strongholds in your brain and your mind holding
you back. And what do we do? We use the weapons of prayer,
the Word of God, fellowship with God's people to strengthen us,
strengthen our hand in the Lord, what? To bring every thought,
what? Bring into captivity every thought
of the obedience of Christ. You catch that? We take our thought
life and we bring it captive through the Word of God, through
prayer, through fellowship with God's people, through singing
hymns, singing when we're alone, praising God, staying in church,
all those things, living the Christian life like you're supposed
to. What's it do? It keeps your mind focused on
Christ. Now if you have some different
translation, it might say bringing captivity to every thought unto
the obedience in Christ. If you bring your thoughts into
your obedience in Christ, then you're chasing your tail. Because
your obedience in Christ is not going to bring down any strongholds.
It's going to make you think you're something you're not. It's obedience
of Christ. Everything that we have points
us to Christ. The Word of God points us to
Christ. When we pray, we only pray in the name of Christ. It
points us to Christ. When we sing, we sing about Christ.
When we fellowship with God's people, we fellowship in Christ.
All these things that God's given us, all these weapons, to fight
this spiritual battle. God's given us to focus our minds
on Christ. And there's the key. Bringing
every thought captive. Pulling down those strongholds.
It's like a citadel. You watch some of these cool
movies where they have these battles back in the dark ages,
and they'll come with the catapults and the archers, and they can't
penetrate those big giant rock walls. That's what's in your
mind sometimes. And you can't get it down. We
can pull them down. We have catapults. We have more
than that. We have the Word of God and all
these things to help us. And it takes our mind and it
focuses our mind on Christ when we hear the Gospel. That's why
you never want to have man involved in the Gospel. Once you start
taking the Gospel and saying, here's what man does in the Gospel,
it's not on Christ anymore, it's on Him. The Gospel's all about
Christ. It's a declaration of Christ.
We declare what Christ has done. We declare what Christ will do
for us. We declare what Christ has determined. We declare how
wonderful Christ is. And that puts our mind on Him,
not on us. And it brings down all those
strongholds, all those things that would hold us back, because
we're focused on our Lord Jesus Christ as we should be. We bring
our thoughts captive unto Christ. So back there in Romans chapter
12, He begins now to give us instruction
exactly how to do this. I've already given you some by
looking at that other text, but you have an idea of where we're
headed. It's all about your mind and Christ. Where's your mind?
Mine needs to be on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how you
do it. You say, well, I'm going to present
my body a living sacrifice. I'm going to go out and just
do something that's going to physically hurt me and then God
will love me. That's not what he's talking
about. Not at all, okay? When your mind's on Christ, then
what you do is going to follow. The works follow, right? Works don't go first. This isn't
about works, but it does produce works, and that's what we're
gonna find. Here's the thought. It's all about your mind. Notice verse
three. For I say through the grace given unto me to every
man that is among you. First thing, what do you do? If you wanna be renewed in the
spirit of your mind and test God's will for your life and
have peace in that, first thing you do, notice right here, I
say through the grace of God given to me that every man that
is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought
to think. Step number one, humility. You're not to think of yourself.
You start making it about you, then you're getting off track. You're not that special. You're
obviously special in God's eyes, but you don't have the ability
to live this life. You don't have the ability to do any of
these things. It's the Lord that's going to have to work this through
you. So if you think, well, I'm going to grab a hold of this.
I'm going to grab ahold of Christianity. I'm going to make it work. You're
going to be in big trouble. The first step is to not do that.
The first step is to not to think of yourself more highly than
you ought to think. But how are we to understand
it? Think soberly. That means your mind isn't just
going from here to there. Keep it on track. According as God
has dealt to every man a measure of faith. You recognize that
the amount of faith you have to trust him, The amount of faith
he's given you to believe his word, to understand the things
of God, is a measure. God measured that to you. Humble
yourself. I wouldn't even know him if it
wasn't for him doing a work in my heart. I wouldn't have any
ability to understand anything we're talking about if he wouldn't
have measured. He deals it out. You know how
much faith you're going to get tomorrow? Whatever he deals out. That's humbling. The next day,
how am I going to make it through that day? Well, I'm going to
have faith. How much am I going to have? that I need, exactly
when I need it. He's going to measure it out.
It's not you. It's Him. And then we move on. Well, let's go to 1 Peter chapter
5 first real quick and just show you how humbling this is. 1 Peter
chapter 5. Now the last part of verse 5
tells us to be clothed with humility, right? Subject one another, and
that's part of this too. We give ourselves to each other
and one another, and we're clothed with humility by doing that.
Why? Because God resists the proud when you give grace to
the humble. You want more grace, there's gonna have to be some
humility. God's not gonna run around giving you more and more and
more and more grace every day. If you're walking proud, thinking
it's all about you, you've just excluded yourself from that.
And then here he says, humble yourself therefore under the
mighty hand of God. that he may exalt you in due
time. Humble yourself unto the mighty." I used to think that
meant, Alejandro thought that God was over me and that if I
messed up, he would squish me. Humble yourself unto his mighty
hand. He would talk, that's not at all what that means. It tells
us exactly what it means, verse seven, casting all your care
upon him for he careth for you. Humility and trusting God is
almost the same thing. That's how you humble yourself.
If you want to be humble, you've got to give it all the time.
You say, but I can't let go of this. You better. You mean really
step out and trust Christ with everything and don't try to fix
it myself at all? That's exactly what he's saying.
Did I say don't do anything? I didn't say that. You'll see.
The works follow. It's got to be faith first. It's
got to be God first. It's got to be God doing it.
And so here he says, cast all your care upon him. Why? He cares
about you. He cares. So if you want to humble
yourself under the mighty hand of God that you may be exalted
in due time, same thing Christ did. And we're going to see that
when we close. He humbled himself. He was exalted. You humble yourself. How do you do that? Cast all
your care on him. You trust him with every fiber
you have. Job said, though he slay me, yet will I trust in
him. He kills me. I need that grace. I need Him to be with me. And
He put it in me. I can't stop trusting Him. So back there in Romans 12, I think it's 2 Corinthians, I think
it's chapter 4, verse 7. What hast thou that thou didst
not receive? And if thou receiveth, wontest thou glories if thou
didst not receive it? What is it that we have that
the Lord hasn't given us? You name one thing, anything,
it's all of the Lord, right? Who makes you differ? Exactly.
The Lord's done that. And that's the mindset Paul begins
here to tell us how we are to have a renewed mind. How we are
to prove that acceptable, good, and perfect will of God in our
life. How we're to present ourselves as a living sacrifice. In verse 3, as I said, he gives
us a measure of faith. We're not to think too highly
of ourselves. For as we have many members in one body, all
the members have not the same office. Now, why did he do this? Now he's talking about the church.
Now he's talking about being a member of a local church, serving
God. By the way, Christianity in the
New Testament is church life. There's no text in the New Testament
that's not in the context of a local church. So we preachers
just want everybody to go to church. You say, church all the
time. No, it's because the Bible is all about church. It's not
all about church. It's about Christ. But the life
that we're to live is in the church. And here he says that
we're all members of that one body, that local assembly, right?
But we don't have all the same office. We're all different inside
that body. So we being many are one body
in Christ and everyone's members of another. First of all, you
humble yourself. You don't think of yourself too
highly. But then you recognize you're part of something bigger
than you. actually part of something more important than you. I heard
somebody here a while back, and it made me cringe, because I
know what they've been through and why they said it. No church
is more important than a person. That's not true. You give yourself
to the church. Everything's about giving yourself
to the church. I mean, Christ, obviously, is who you're giving
to. But as you serve the Lord, it's in the church. The church
is more important than you. There's no doubt about that. It's obvious.
If you're not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to,
all's well that ends well. Amen. Amen. That's exactly right. And so here we see that we're
members one of another. We're part of each other, one
of another in the local church. And we have gifts that are different
according to what God's given us. He's proportioned it out
to us. We all have different gifts. And he says in verse six,
whether it's prophecy, let us prophesy. The Lord's given you
the ability to prophesy the word of God. That means when you speak
the word of God, it sounds different than other people. God's given
you a gift. We're all supposed to preach the gospel as we go.
But there's certain men in the church, Scripture shows there's
women also that pray and prophesy over their head covers. They
do some, they teach as well, women do. The lady at Top Hall
showed you a better way. And so when you have a gift to
do that, it's a gift God's given you for the edification of the
local church. And for the spread of the gospel
and for reaching God's elect, all that. So you have that gift.
Well, if you have that, then use it. It's not complicated
there. Our ministry? Let's wait on our
ministry. I don't mean to sit and wait. But you do, you use that ministry.
What is that gift of ministry? You serve Him. Serve Him. Like
glory. That's definitely our gift. There's
no doubt about it. At least one of them. And it
says, and he that teacheth, I'll teach you. Do you have the ability
to teach the word of God? Then use that gift that God's given
you. What are we talking about? We're
talking about how to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. If you're not faithful
in church, using the gifts you have, you're not going to experience
what verse two is all talking about. Let us teach our exhorting,
exhortation. That means, Mike, I need to talk
to you. I need to tell you something,
seriously. I'll never forget a guy came to our church one
time, Brother Jim Gaylor was there, and he tried to scam me in between
services. He knew I'd be busy in between
Sunday school and worship service. He tried to tell me he had this
property that his mom died. He needed the money to go to
Arkansas to bury her, but they had 20 acres with a four-bedroom
house that he was going to give to me. But they needed some money
to get to Arkansas first to go down there and have a funeral.
And I couldn't talk to Brother Jim Gaylor. Some of you know
how meek a man he was. He got him up against the wall
and had his finger in it. He said, if you're lying to us, God knows.
You're not going to hurt us giving you money. We're going to give
it to you. Well, the Lord knows. And you're
going to have to answer to him if you're lying. About two days
later, I saw him on the news. He had been hitting other churches,
and he got arrested. That was exhortation, see? Willing to
stand right there and tell somebody. And if you have that gift, then
do it, but do it with love. You know, get the exhort. Tell people
how it is about things that didn't do that, but use it. in a loving
way. And it says, let him do it with
simplicity. He's the gifts. Some people have
a gift to give more than others. They really have a gift of giving.
If you have a gift of giving, you probably have a gift of making
money. The Lord hasn't given me that yet. I try to give to
people, but it's according to what I have. But the Lord gives
people gifts for that. And if the Lord's given you a
gift to do it, then do it. Give, give, give. The church
needs givers. So do that. And then it says,
He that rules, if you have a position of authority, be diligent about
it. It's not some small thing, it's a serious matter. If you
have the ability to show mercy, what's that mean? Some people
show mercy, some people just don't seem to have the same heart
when someone else is hurting as others do. Some people, they
see another brother or sister hurting and they feel every bit
of it. It's a gift. And it don't sound like a gift
that you want, but it's a blessing to have someone come to you that
can feel your pain and understand you. And that's a gift of mercy. I want to serve you. I want to
be there for you when you don't even deserve it. I mean, you're
a wretch. I get it. But I'm going to show
up at your door with a bowl of soup or whatever. I'm going to
take you out. I'm going to have love on you. I'm going to read
your subscription and tell you it's OK and hug you, whatever.
That type of person has a gift of mercy to be merciful. Do it
with cheerfulness. And those are gifts in the church.
Use those. And then notice verse 9. Let
love be without dissimulation. Now what he's going into here
is something that is really amazing. And what he's doing is he's humbling
us. Everything about this is humbling.
Because, you know, in your flesh, you really want to live and use
all these gifts. And everything in the world is
like a shiny lure to the bats. You know, I want to take off
over here. I don't want to do that. He's given us these instructions,
that's how you live your life. And then he says some things
that are mind-bogglingly, mind-bogglingly, I can't say that right, amazingly
impossible. Notice verse nine, let love be
without dissimulation. Your love can't have any hypocrisy
in it. So I love you brother, unconditional. That's what the Lord's telling
me to do. Now I can't be faking it. You don't show up from church
and go, how you doing? Oh, just fine. You can't do that. You're not
allowed to do that. But maybe I do. So how do I make that work? What do I do? How can I not be
a hypocrite when I have certain feelings in my heart, or I've
done certain things I can't change? How can I love somebody without
being fake about it? I can't. That's what he's telling
us. Say, Lord wouldn't tell us to
do things we can't do. You realize everything you tell us to do,
you can't do outside of Christ? If Christ didn't do it, you'd
never make it. So he's saying let love be, it's got to be perfect,
it's got to be right, it's got to be right, reason all the time.
What's he doing to us? He's dropping us to our knees.
What I can't do is not your help. I can't do that. I need your
help. You say, well, we love each other.
We don't love each other that perfect. But he's telling us
to do it. He's humbling us. We have to
seek the Lord. Everything he's doing is putting
our mind on Christ. You're going to have to seek him for that.
Then he keeps talking about, abhor that which is evil and
cleave to that which is good. He didn't say, don't do evil. He said, I can handle that. Give
me something to do. That's man's works. Don't do
evil. Got it. I'll grab ahold of that
bull by the horns and I won't do any evil. I don't think that's
going to last. And then he didn't say, do that
which is good. If he said, dude, that was good,
you've got a whole world of religious people out there jumping on that.
Oh, I'll do good. I can do good. He didn't say that. He said,
abhor that which is evil. You've got to hate it. How do
I hate what's evil when I still have that old flesh nature in
me? How can I possibly do that? Abhor it. And how can I cleave
to good? I love good all the time. I can't. He's driving me to my knees.
He's making me look again to Christ. I have to have my focus
on Christ. Be kindly, affectionate with
one another. with one to another, with brotherly love, honoring,
preferring one another. I always think like this, like
me and Waylon, now this may be true of me and Waylon, exactly
true, but we hit that door at the same time, we're like, can't
get through it together. Waylon, you first then. No, no, you can
go first. No, Waylon, you, I prefer you.
That's what he's talking about. Other person first, not you.
With other person first. How can I do that? I like me
too much. I'm gonna have to trust the Lord, I'm gonna have to look
to Christ. And everything he's doing is putting us on our knees,
humbling us, chopping us down. It's all about Christ. It's all
about Christ. And preferring one another, which
I want to do that, I do, in my spirit. It always changed my
heart, I do, I really, my deepest desire is to do these things.
But I know there's a rule, and I would do good evils present
with me. So how can I do this? I can't. I'm gonna have to have
the Lord to help me. Not slothful in business, fervent
in the spirit, serving the Lord, All of these things come into
play. Notice verse 12, rejoicing in
hope. Sometimes I don't feel like rejoicing
in hope. Sometimes I don't have much hope. How do I do that?
I'm gonna have to have this help. Patient and tribulation. If you
just read kind of over this, you might think that it's not
that big a deal. You stop on some of these things, you realize
I can't do that. Not like it's written, it's written
perfectly. And here it says, patient in tribulation, continuing
instant in prayer. It means your prayer life needs
to be on the ball. I can't get it done. I fail. I fail all the time.
I fail all the time in prayer. And so we're gonna have to have
the Lord. Notice this, distributing to the necessity of the saints,
giving to hospitality. And it's on your heart to say,
Hey, I'm wondering about these people over at the house because
I think, you know, maybe we can be a good witness to them and love
on them a little bit. Or maybe I should take them out
and do something. Or we should be more involved
with somebody and help them out a little bit. Nah, I don't have time for
that. You can't say that. Not according to this. The Lord's
putting that on your heart. That's the Holy Spirit leading
you. You need to obey it, right? I can't always do that. I struggle
with all those kind of things. You're going to need the Lord's
help. And rejoice with them that rejoice. Well, Alejandro, maybe
I'm Maybe I'm blessed with something that you're not, and you're jealous
and mad. I don't want to rejoice with him today. I don't like
that. I can't make myself do it. Weep with them that weep. Maybe
Sam's weeping over something and says, well, he deserves that.
He deserves to do that. He deserves to suffer a little
bit. I don't want to weep with him. You say, well, that's silly. That's exactly the way we act
sometimes. That's exactly what's in our hearts. And so we need
the Lord's help with every one of these things. And then come
back to the mind. Verse 16. Be of the same mind
one toward another. How do we do that? Practicing
all these things. Seeking God's help in doing this.
Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things. Don't get too high minded. Don't
think you're too smart. Don't act like you're part of this
world with the philosophy and the understanding of this world.
And then your mind in the high things. You're so important.
Stop. That's not who we are. That's
not what we're about. But consent to men of lowest
days. If you don't have the ability
to just love anybody and to talk to anybody and to be, you know,
if you're too good for somebody, you're missing this whole thing.
None of us. If you've read the book of Romans
up to this point, you should be getting this. The mercy of
God is the only reason you're here in chapter 12. If we think
we're too good for somebody, we're not going to be able to
do any of these things. We're not to do that. Don't be
wise in your own conceits. Don't think that you know things
that you don't really know. Don't think that you know everything.
Don't think that you know very much at all. Recompense to no
man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the
sight of all men. And he says it would be possible
as much as life in you. Then he kind of puts this one
back on you. Whatever God's given you the ability to do, live peaceably
with all men. And these are tremendous instructions
on how to be renewed in the spirit of our mind, how to be transformed
and live this living sacrifice of a life. What do you mean a
living? He's saying a living sacrifice. Christ died at Calvary
and then he saved us. And when he came into our hearts
and our lives and he gave us a new life, he changed us to
live a sacrificial life like his life. He identified with
us and flesh and blood. He could hunger and suffer. And
now we identify with Him through suffering with Him. And so He's
teaching us to do something and live peacefully with all men.
Notice Galatians chapter 2. We're going to have a couple more scriptures
here. Galatians chapter 2. This is living sacrifice. I'm
a seeker. I beg you. Give your life as a sacrifice
to the Lord. How do I do that? It's not going to be you grabbing
hold by your abilities and say, I'm going to do this, I'm going
to do that. You're going to have to live to Christ. It's going
to be all about Christ, because your works always follow your
faith, right? You're not going to run to put works out there
first. Notice here, Galatians chapter 2. I'm crucified with Christ. Same
thing we just talked about, right? I died with Christ. When Christ
came into my life, the Holy Spirit came into my life, I died to
this world. There's a part of me that will
never have anything to do with this world now. I died to it. I don't belong here. My citizenship
is in heaven, right? I'm crucified with Christ. Now,
crucified with Christ, not physically. I live. I still am still alive. There's something about what's
going on in my life that's dead. It's the death to the whole world.
God changed me, took me out of that. That's not my life anymore.
And I live. I'm still alive though. How do
I deal with that? Well, it's yet not I, but Christ. He never
intended on you to be by you. It's Christ. You put Christ in
you. That's the hope of glory. He's in you. I'm crucified, but
I'm still alive. And I'm still living this life. But here's the key. It's not
me. It's him. It's Christ in me,
living through me. And he said, but Christ lives
in me. The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith
of the Son of God. There's a life in me that I live,
that's Christ in me working out. He's working to will and to do
of His good pleasure. I need to understand that in
my life. And it's the faith of Christ.
And it says, I live by the faith of the Son of God. I don't live
by faith in the Son of God in this context. If I did it by
my faith in the Son of God, That's not me crucifying me. That's
me doing things. In this context, I'm crucified,
but I'm still alive, and I have a new life. This is theological.
This is doctrinal. He's telling you that you have
a new life in the Lord Jesus Christ. That life is not your
life. It's Christ living in you, and
you live by, remember, bringing our thoughts captive unto the
obedience of Christ, not our obedience. We live by His faith. Not our faith. We live from faith
to faith, right? His faith to our faith. It's
His faith that we're focused on. I live by His faith. I trust in His faith. I trust
that He took care of everything for me. He's going to take care
of everything for me. He's always taken care of everything
for me. And He's always going to take care of everything for
me. It's His faith. His faithfulness to God and Him
trusting the Father, obeying the Father in every single thing
He did, has ever done or ever will do. That's on my count and
I trust in that, not in what I'm going to do or how I'm going
to get my life in order. This is in order. When you're
focused on Christ, you're resting in Christ. Step number one, rest
in Christ. Step number two, revert back
to step number one. Resting in Christ. That's how we end up
serving the Lord, living for the Lord, giving our life as
a sacrifice because it's humbling. It's humbling to trust Him with
everything. And to step out and say, Christ
did it all. I trust Him. I'm living a new life because
of Him, not because of me. For Him, not for me. For the
Lord Jesus Christ. And we're to have that same mind,
all of us. And let me finish this out, verse
20. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave
Himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace
of God. If I put myself in that and say, I'm going to grab ahold
of this thing, I'm going to do it. I'm going to make myself
better every day. I'm just going to get in there.
Then I'm frustrating the grace of God I'm depending on. And
he says, for if the righteousness came by the law, then Christ
died in vain. If there's something I'm going to do to obey a rule
that's going to cause this to happen, then Christ died in vain
because he came and fulfilled all that for me. And if I'm going
to live like I shouldn't have peace in my life, and live the
Christian life and walk as I should walk and live in that perfect
will of God. That means I'm looking to Him.
And I recognize every day that it's all Christ, not me. Let
me tell you, you're not going to be wanting to live ungodly.
You're not going to be turning your brother down when you need
to rejoice with him. All these things are going to
fall into place. Step one, rest completely in what Christ has
done for you. Step number two, revert back
to step number one. Give yourself completely to that. God gave you the faith for this
purpose. Use it that way. I'm trusting
the gospel. I'm trusting in the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Let this mind be in you. Philippians
chapter two, that's where we're going to wind up. Philippians
chapter two. Remember, it's all about the
mind. We're being renewed in the spirit of our mind. We're to
have the same mind toward one another. Philippians 2. He's talking to another church,
but he kind of has the same heart. We're in Romans 12, where he
says, I'm begging you. Please, look what God's done
for you. I'm begging you. Be renewed in the spirit of your
mind. Give your life as a sacrifice. And then he explains how to do
it, right? Well, here he's kind of got the same heart. If there's
any consolation in Christ, any comfort of love, any fellowship
of the Spirit, any vows of mercy, if there's anything in you that's
thankful for the gospel I brought to you, that there's anything
in you, then please listen to this. Fulfill you my joy. As a minister to that church,
he's telling you, please do this for me so I can see it in you
and have the joy of it. That you be like-minded, having
the same love, being of one accord in one mind. Now, how does a
group of people that are all diverse from different backgrounds
come together, different ways of thinking, going to have the
same mind, and in those ways be of one accord in one mind?
How's that going to happen? You've got to die to you and
it's got to be all about Christ. It can't be about you. It's got
to be all about Christ. You've got to realize that it's
all the Lord Jesus Christ. Let nothing be done through,
what, strife or vainglory. You don't strive with one another.
You don't seek your glory in anything you're doing. And then
he says, but in lowliness of mind, how do we do that? That's all my care upon him.
I'm humble here. I have a measure of faith. I'm
not any better than anybody else. You have to recognize that. Let
each esteem other better than themselves. Look not on every man on his
own things, but every man also on the things of others. It's
all about the mind, the mind of Christ. He didn't look on
his own, he looked on yours. He doesn't look on his own now,
he still looks on yours. His glory is to save you and to intercede
for you. That's where he receives his
glory. He never lives to intercede for us, even now. Sitting there
in heaven, I don't know how it actually plays out. But I know
that Satan is the accuser of the brethren. I'm not sure he's
able anymore to go to God. I guess he can. I don't know
where he couldn't. He went in Job's day, and he accuses us. He tries. All Christ's got to
do is say, man, what the hell? Shoot. That's it. So look not every man on his
own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let
this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Here's
the mindset. Get your mind right. But being
in the form of God thought it not robbery to equal with God.
What's he saying? He was in the form of God when
he came as a man into this world. And he didn't think that it was
robbery to be considered equal with God. He knew he was God. He had no problem with that.
He didn't leave his deity behind or anything. All he left was
his glory. He didn't leave his attributes. He didn't leave his power. Nothing.
He was still upholding all things by the word of his power. He
upheld all things by the Word of His power when He was in the
manger, when He was in Mary's womb, when He was on the cross,
after He died. You say, how can He still uphold
all things by the Word of His power after He died when He's
laying in the grave? Because death is not a cessation of existence,
it's a separation. Constantly, as a little baby.
He knew everything, and I mean eternally. As a baby. He knew that it was okay for
Him to be considered God. He didn't have a problem with
that. And so if he could do this, surely us lowly creatures that
have spit in his face, and he's been merciful to us, could work
on doing this. He made himself of no reputation,
but took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of men. You willing to do that? Take
the form of a servant? No reputation. As long as Christ
is honored in my life and nobody remembers me, that's good enough. And being found in the fashion
of the man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross." That's us. Now, obviously, we'd
be willing to die, you know, be a martyr, but there's more
than that to it. Be willing to die to this world?
Be willing to. And he said he humbled himself
and became obedient. And it says, unto death, even
the death of the cross. What did he do there? And this
is where it all comes into play. Why is it so powerful to focus
your mind on the Lord Jesus Christ. Because Christ went to the cross,
took our sins upon himself, paid every single bit of our sin debt
to God with his blood, and the Father saw that and was satisfied. You realize the Father saw the
Son and was satisfied in Christ. 100%. And satisfied in us, in
Christ, 100%. And nothing can change that.
And God, I was justified before the throne of God by the Lord
Jesus Christ before I was ever born. And that justification,
that making me right before God, I have eternal life in the Lord
Jesus Christ in the new birth, but that standing that I have
in the Lord Jesus Christ was procured Father was satisfied. He saw me in Christ and was satisfied
with me before I was ever born. And nothing I do, nothing that
happens in this world, in this life, my faith, my repentance,
my new birth, whatever you want to call it, sanctification, your
new life, growing in grace and knowledge, none of that has any
bearing, any effect on the fact that God accepts me 100% in Christ. I don't have to move one inch
to the left, one inch to the right. I'm accepted in the Lord
Jesus Christ. I keep my mind on Him. Let me
tell you what, that's why you need to hear the gospel preached.
as a declaration of what Christ has done, that your mind would
be right. And everything else will follow.
Everything else will follow. And so here he says, because
he did that, and that's our example, to have our mind right, wherefore
God hath highly exalted him. The way up is down. And the Lord
will do that in your life. And one day he's coming for all
of us. Exaltation is going to be so amazing, you're not even
going to be able to grasp it. It's going to blow your mind.
What he has for us. And he says, wherefore God hath
highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every
name. So what did he get? He said his name is already above
every name. I get it, but everything's being
brought under the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ through this
time-space continuum in this world. And he's being lifted
up, lifted up, lifted up, lifted up. all the creatures of God,
honoring and glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything for
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's given a name above every
name for what purpose? That at the name of Jesus, now
this is not us. We can take an example that we'll
be exalted and blessed, but this is only for Christ. That at the
name of Jesus, every knee should bow at things in heaven and things
in earth and things under the earth. Everything that exists
will bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ. Joe Biden will
bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ when he comes back. Donald
Trump will bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ. I will bow
the knee. I'm doing, I'm getting my livered up now. Every single
person that ever existed, all creation will bow to the Lord
Jesus Christ. And every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, the glory of the father. So, when
Paul tells us in Romans chapter 12, not to be conformed to this world,
he's saying don't live like the rest of the world, but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind. How do we continue that? How
does that go on in our life? Well, you've got to get to work,
you've got to do a lot of stuff, you've got to give, you've got to do... That's all part
of it, you've got to give some initiative about that, that's
right. But everything that he's given us to do, we can't do without
him. We have a measure of faith for
that. And if we're not looking to Christ, it doesn't mean anything
anyway. It's all about bringing our thoughts
captive unto His obedience. And that's what the Gospel's
all about. And what this is really talking about is living the Gospel
life. That's why it's important that
you understand what the Gospel really is. If you think the Gospel
is something you do, then you can't live like that and make
this happen. But when you see the Gospel, it's not a, you do
this. Now, is there things that we're
supposed to do, things that happen when we're born again and all
that? Yes. But the gospel is declaring what Christ has already
done for us. And if we're going to live in
the gospel, we live in what he's already done for us. It's not
me, but him. I have a new life, but that life's
not me. It's him. And I live by his faith because
he's faithful, not me, him. And I couldn't be faithful enough
to do one thing in the kingdom of God. The very best I could
do might as well be the very worst I could do as far as satisfying
God for the wickedness that I am. It's all Christ. And when your
mind is on Christ, you say, sometimes I struggle with these. Sometimes
I do. I have strongholds in my mind. And I don't know how to
renew my mind. I can't prove and test what that
good, perfect will for God is. I don't seem to be able to get
into that. Then get into the Word. Look
at what Christ has to say about himself. Look what the Bible
says about the Lord Jesus Christ. Focus your mind on the things
of Christ. Believe it. Trust it. That's
the faith that God's given you to do that. And that's what it's
all about. So when you honor Him in that
way, by declaring, even in your own heart and mind, it's not
me. It's all Him. It's 100% the grace
of God. Then you're going to live with
that mind. Your mind's going to be right. You'll make good decisions. You'll be able to live like you
should. You'll have more peace in your heart. I pray that's
a blessing to you. Amen. I probably couldn't sum that
up in two points. Love God and love your neighbor
as yourself. Yes. I was thinking whenever
you're talking there in Ephesians chapter 6, talking about the
weapons of our warfare are not carnal. In Ephesians chapter
6, the scripture says in verse 13, well in verse 12, it says,
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities
and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore? taking
to you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand
in the day, evil day, and having all to stand, stand, therefore. And as Brother J.C. was saying,
it's all about Christ. We don't take these things that
we're fixing right here, we don't take these pieces of armor and
start putting them on so that we can fight. It says to stand. We've talked about this in our
teaching through relations, abide, abide. You don't do nothing to
abide, you just rest, right? It says to stand therefore, already
having your loins girded about with truth. Who's the truth? Jesus Christ is the way, the
truth, the life. It says, having on the breastplate
of righteousness. Who's righteousness? Jehovah
Sidkenu, the Lord, our righteousness. Jesus is our righteousness. Having
your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Who is
the prince of peace? Who is in the gospel? What is
the peace that is preached in the gospel? Christ has reconciled
you unto God. Your sins have been forgiven.
There's peace there. Jesus is your peace. Above all,
taking on the shield of faith. He just said it right there.
Who do we look to? It's the obedience of Christ. It's His faith. We
look to His faith. Wherein ye shall be able to quench
all the fiery darts. If we're looking at what He has
done and not what we're trying to accomplish in this flesh,
then we're going to be successful because His faith is going to
quench out every fiery Those fiery darts of your flesh and
those of Satan and the world that is coming at you are going
to say you're not good enough, you're not good enough, you're
not good enough. The law of God is going to keep telling you
that's right, it's right, you're not holy. But yet the faith of
Jesus Christ says it was done for you. And take on the helmet
of salvation. Who is our salvation? Christ
is our salvation. He's the Lord, our salvation.
And the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Well,
Jesus Christ is the Word of God. The Spirit is the Spirit of Christ.
The Spirit comes to us giving us understanding of this written
Word of God, which is telling us about the Word of God. So
keep our minds, as he said, on that, praying always with prayer
and supplication in the Spirit, watching thereunto with all perseverance
and supplication for all the saints. So, brethren, whenever
he is talking about these weapons and putting on these things.
Listen, it's putting on Christ. We put on Christ. We put off
the old man and we put on Christ. That's putting on the armor.
Putting on the armor is to put on Christ, not to get your Bible
and be able to, I'm going to ward off the devil with all these
little things. No, this is looking unto Jesus, the author and the
finisher of your faith. I tell you what, we believe in
absolute predestination here. We believe that there is anything
that God is not predestined. This morning, I didn't have any
clue that Brother JC was coming up here, but it wasn't by accident. I didn't even know he was going
to preach for me this morning, but it wasn't by accident. Didn't
know what he was going to preach. It wasn't by accident. God is
predestined every bit of that. But what God gave him to speak
of is a perfect segue to what I was going to preach this morning,
which I'll preach next week, Lord willing. And that is that
we walk in the Spirit because the lust, or the flesh lusts
against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. I want to
tell you, just pick up right where you left off, basically,
on what this is, is that we cannot do, the lust wants something,
the flesh wants something, and it wants control, it wants to
produce its own righteousness, it wants to be the one that's
in the spotlight, it wants to be the one that's looked at.
But the spirit that is in us, that new birth, that brought
that new spirit, that new creature in us, it lusts against the flesh. And its desire is for Christ
to be magnified. Its desire is for Christ to be
on display. It's for us to be humbled and
Christ to be exalted. And so that was a great segue,
brother. Great introduction to next week,
sir. So you can come back if you want. Be here with us. Does
anybody have anything they'd like to add to this? Brother
Kevin, you got anything you'd like to add? I see you're kind
of flipping through your Bible here. I didn't know if you had
anything you wanted to say. No, no, no. Anybody got a question? We open it up for questioning
up here and correction. Yeah, brother. If there's anybody
who wants to correct or rebuke. I appreciate the message, brother. I agree with what you said there.
That's a wonderful word. The Lord's given us a pleasure
with us here today. Bless that word. All right, anybody
got anything, a prayer request or anything? Yes, Larry Armstrong. I know
most of you guys probably don't know Larry Armstrong, but he's
a good friend of ours. His brother, Tom Armstrong, used
to pastor a church up the road from us here a ways. And now
has recently retired from pastoring. But he still preaches, and I
think they even have some services in their home on Sunday afternoons
and Wednesday nights. But anyway, his brother Larry
suffered some issues yesterday after our men's breakfast was
over. They found some lesions on his
brain. They ended up having to take him to the emergency room
and found some lesions on his brain. So I don't know if he suffered
a stroke or not, but this was kind of out of his mind yesterday
afternoon. or yesterday morning as we were
finishing up breakfast. And so keep the Armstrong family
in your mind. I haven't heard of updates since
yesterday afternoon. But if you remember to pray for
the Armstrong family, Larry Armstrong is his name. He's an elderly
gentleman. I'm not sure exactly how old
he is. I think he's- Yeah, he just had
a birthday, same birthday as Caden's. Keep him in your prayers. Anybody
else got a prayer? Lord Jesus, we thank you so much
today. For this wonderful time and fellowship that we have today
gathered around your throne. Gathered around the glory of
God in Christ Jesus. Lord, we are so thankful for
the church. We are so thankful for gathering us together through
the salvation that's found only in Christ Jesus. Lord, we are
so grateful for all that you've given us. We are very undeserving
of the grace that's been bestowed upon your people. We're very
undeserving through the sin that we have in our lives, the constant
rebellion that we would have towards God. Lord, we are truly
a blessed people to have the imputation of righteousness given
to us. Lord, we're truly blessed to
have sins forgiven. We're truly blessed to have a
holy God reconcile us to himself, to call us friend, to call us
brother, to love us. It just truly is amazing. And
Father, we're so grateful for what has been accomplished and
doing the salvation of sinners through the Lord Jesus Christ.
We cannot exalt him enough. We cannot preach about him enough.
We cannot extol his name high enough, Father, in this lifetime,
in this plane. And we'll spend all eternity
trying to accomplish that, Father. We look forward to that day that
we stand and see our Savior. We look forward to the day that
we can stand in the person, in the flesh that you give us at
that time and stand and proclaim, holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God Almighty. To proclaim worthy is the lamb
that was slain. And Father, we just thank you
today and we just pray that you have been with us by your spirit.
We pray that our worship has been pleasing to you in spirit
and in truth. We thank you for the word of
God that was preached for Brother JC and for giving him the words
to save us one and more and we pray that you've given us understanding
we pray the Spirit would teach us and give us the understanding
of these things and it might take What was heard father and
in our heart would apply those things so that we might Worship
you over all that you have done for us and that as brother JC
talked about that we might present our selves a living sacrifice
of Specifically, the way that we do that is through the service
to your brethren, to these people that you have given to us together
with. Lord, that's how we show our
service to God. And primarily that service is
done through exhorting through the word of God and doctrine
and encouraging each other in the gospel. And so Father, I
pray that you would help us to continue in the gospel, to be
faithful to the gospel. That you would hold us and keep
us, preserve us as you promised to do. Lord, that none of us
would be found as a castaway. But Lord, that you would be our
salvation, not only in the legal aspect of it, but every day in
the practical living of it. Lord, that you might work your
will in us, that you might do your works in us, Father. We trust in those promises that
you have given us, that you will work in us to willing to do your
good pleasure. And that we will do every good
work that you have ordained for us to do, no more and no less.
And we live in that promise. We thank you again for all that
you are. We thank you for what you've done. I pray that you
keep these brethren safe as they leave this place today. Keep
them safe, Lord. And that you would use them this
week to minister the gospel to those that they are around. And
may Christ be testified of and honored and exalted in all that
we do and all that we say. which in Christ's name we pray.