Transformed

We must not be conformed to this world or its ways but be transformed by the renewing of our minds.  Renewing our minds with Jesus and the word of God.

Transcript

Pastor Rickey D. Dixon 0:00

God, praise God. Welcome, welcome this morning to everyone who is joining me this morning for the Holy City Spirit of Truth Ministries, bearing witness to the truth podcast and conference line. Praise God. We thank God for another Sunday, this first Sunday of the month of July. We have the word for you this morning. So we want to go ahead and get into the word because I'd like to get my time in so that you all can feed, receive into your spirits what is needed this day. Okay, many of us, many of us, during our lifetime, have accepted ourselves for who we are. We know our own ways. That's one thing we know about our own selves. We know our ways. Whether they're right or wrong, we know them. We know what we will do, and we know how we will act in certain situations. We know better than anybody the things we have done and some of the things we're still doing. But over time, most of us realize and know that natural changes will come as we live. Natural changes. We shall gradually change, maybe even slow down a bit in life. Whether we want to or not, our lives will change because of our age, our body size will change if it hasn't already changed, and our level of maturity will change as we live out our years upon this earth. But in all of my years, hallelujah, hallelujah, of walking with God and studying his word, one thing about the human nature, which I have observed, is that many people hate any kind of change. If it has to do with their own personal life, they just, some people just don't do good with change. They like to keep things the way they are. They don't see no reason why it needs to change. We as human beings, once we have settled in what is our comfort zone and life's patterns, certain patterns of our life, we will stay in that way of life, unchanged for years, if we can get away with it. We become so used to the way things are, and we see no reason to change anything else. And while we may be able to get away with that naturally, you may be able to get away with that, but spiritually, we will not be able to remain that way. Something has to change in us spiritually. See, this mindset of having a fixed predictability can and will become our spiritual ruin. If we so insist and refuse not to change and be transformed into who God will have us to be through Christ Jesus. My intent this morning is to make us all aware that our natural changes are not the most important changes in our lives that we will be required to make. But it is indeed the spiritual changes which should have our most sincere focus and attention. These are the changes that must be made by us while we are yet here on this earth. Hallelujah. If we are to be acceptable unto God, this morning's message transformed. Our brother Paul saw the need to express this awareness to the church in Rome. He found himself begging the people of the church and having them come to know that their lives and their bodies must be presented unto God as a living, hallelujah, hallelujah, a living sacrifice. The living sacrifice of ourselves is what God requires. The self that doesn't want to do God's will, God wants it sacrificed unto Him while we are living. That's why it's a living sacrifice. See, and Paul's teaching them the importance of this change. He points out that in presenting themselves and their bodies unto God means that they must present themselves in the way that a living sacrifice will be acceptable by God. God's instructions to even to this day have not changed. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. But he does expect for his instructions to change us. Paul tells the church in Rome. I see, he says, I beseech you, brethren, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. How he wanted, how do the Lord want it, Paul? Holy, acceptable unto God. He says, which is your reasonable service, a living sacrifice. Come on now. It's not easy to do. Not on our own and of our own selves, but this is something that must be done and it has to be done. We must present ourselves to God as a living sacrifice while we are yet living here on this earth. To live in a manner where you are living your life as living your life, I call it in sacrifice mode. It's something that we must learn from Him who made the ultimate sacrifice for us. Jesus sacrificed himself as a living sacrifice. So we he ain't asking us to do something he ain't done. He sacrificed himself as a living sacrifice for all of us. Okay, now so must we sacrifice ourselves for him in a sacrifice of true holy obedience. God wants our lives as a living sacrifice to be holy. Why, God? Because this is the only way God, who is holy, will accept our living sacrifice. It's got to be holy. We got to separate our lives from the world. We got to live our lives in a sacred manner unto God. Holy meaning our lives must be lived according to his word. At all times, it means that we must be led by his spirit. It means that we must separate ourselves totally from the ways and the ungodly behaviors of the people of this world. And because of what his son has done for us by hanging on the tree, this he expects of us as a reasonable request. This is something we should do. And it's reasonable because of what Jesus has done for us. Paul goes on to tell the truth. And be not conformed to this world. Don't be nothing like this world. But yeah, but be ye transformed, there it is, by the renewing of your mind. That's the one place we got all got to start. Once we get our minds right, once we get our minds right, see, once the mind has taken on a certain type of mindset, you pretty much can do everything else, pretty much fall into place. He said, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. See, the programming of our minds by the world, see, that's a difficult program to delete. Because we we're born in this world and we've been in this world a long time. But for a lot of us, it's gonna be hard for you to undo what the world has programmed in your mind. See, we can act out in the most terrible ways. If anything tries to reboot what has been programmed and fixed in our minds, we can act a fool sometimes. See, we only want to see things our way. Even if our way is wrong, that's the way we see it. And pride will have us not humble ourselves and admit to ourselves the truth. Solomon, one of David's sons, once wrote in the book of Proverbs, he says, that there is a way which seems right unto a man. He said, But the end thereof is the way of death. He also goes on to write that every way of a man is right in his own eyes. He said again, he said, but the Lord is the one that pondereth the heart. You can see, make things seem like they're right in your own eyes, and the way you want to see them all you want to, but when it comes down to it, it's gonna be what do God see? How do God see it? See, we we all have seen things right in our own eyes every now and then, but we are wrong. Did you hear what they said? We wrong. And this is why we must be transformed by the renewing of our mind. Our minds got to change, our way of thinking got to change. Our worldly mindsets got to go. See, the world is all see, the world is all around us. We get up every morning, every day. The world is all around us. The ways of this world and its many influences will have us failing and avoiding the process of renewing our minds before God. Why? Because the world will have us all thinking that our minds do not need renewing, our minds don't need changing, how we think don't need to be undone. See, this world will have us thinking that we don't have to live our lives in an acceptable way before God. This type of thinking and evil thoughts come from the devil. Because he will have us go against God and go against his ways. But the devil is a lie. As Paul is begging, he said, I beseech you. That word beseech me, I'm begging me. I beseech you. He said, I'm begging. Paul begging and pleading because he cared that much about the people. So he begs and pleads with them, which is what beseeching means. He pleads with the church in Rome title. And so must we hear the word of God pleading with us in a sense to get our lives in a mold of a living, a life of holy sacrifice before God. The Lord's instructions are clear and understood when He says, and be not conform to this world. Be not conformed to this world. Be not that that be not, it still means don't do it. He's telling you, don't do it. Don't be like the world. Don't be like the world. Don't act like the world. Don't think like the world. Because that's only gonna lead us down a path we don't want to go to eternal damnation. You don't want to go down that road. So he's telling us, don't be conformed to this world, don't change yourself. See, this is said also in warning us, because this world and its ways are death to all that will live in accordance with it. This world ain't doing that, leading us to a death we don't want. A spiritual death I'm talking about. We are not in, see, we are not in a world which is preparing us for eternal life. This world ain't preparing us for no eternal life, but it is in fact preparing us for eternal death. If we live not according to God's word, be not conformed, yet means don't you change into what this world is, and don't you let it change you. Don't you act like the inhabitants of this world? Don't you become partakers of this world's ways because none of this world ways, hear me when I say this, none of this world ways are like Jesus. This world does not promote Jesus. This world promotes itself because it's a sinful world, a corrupt world, a wicked world. This world does not promote heaven. Now, many of us, after hearing this, you're gonna you probably gonna have to say, uh-uh. See, we have to say, uh-uh, because we know that our own lives are already full of the world and its way. That's just the truth. And ain't none of us exempt. But I say unto you this morning that there is hope if you begin yourself to. If we want to present ourselves, our bodies, and our minds unto the Lord, the hope lies in Jesus. Come on now, hallelujah. The hope lies in Jesus and in the word of God. It is with Jesus and the word of God by which our minds can be renewed. Our minds can be reprogrammed in a sense, if you will. Having our minds renewed by the word of God transforms us, reprograms us, and puts us in a place whereby we can present ourselves wholly and acceptable unto God. I'm telling you how to get that. That's what hope lies. The hope is always gonna lie in Jesus. The hope always gonna lie in the word of God. We can get this thing fixed if you want it fixed. See, by us renewing our minds and lives with the word of God, we prove before the world and the people in it that God's way is right. When they see you living according to the word of God, when they see you thinking like the word of God, that is proof to the world that God's way is right. When they see your life being blessed, when they see God in your life, see, we prove, we prove to the world what will only be acceptable by God. And we prove before the world what the perfect will of God is. But before we can prove this unto the world, listen to me, before we can prove this to the world, it must be seen as proof in our own life. Get your own self together first. Then we can prove a whole lot to the world that God yet sits on the throne, that he yet sits high, looks low. See, when Paul, even when Paul came to the city of Ephesus and spoke to the church that was growing there, he also stressed unto them to be renewed in the spirit of their mind. This church devils in Ephesus, in the book of, you read about it in the book of Ephesians, and that they should, he told them that they should neither give place to the devil. You got to watch this. The devil will keep your mind the way it is until Jesus comes back so that you could be lost. That's why Paul had to tell the church in Ephesus, don't give no place to the devil. Don't sit up and let him talk to your mind. Don't sit up and let him come into your life. Don't let him come in your house, your dwelling. He said, Don't give no place to them because the enemy's goal is only to hinder our transformation in the Lord. Let me read a little bit for you. Ephesians, the fourth chapter. Paul tells, he had to tell him, he said, that you put off. See, that's something we got to put off. There's some things got to change. That means that depicts that something got to be taken off, which means something got to change. That you put off, put it off, take it off. That lifestyle, that way you're talking, and that way you used to think, like the world, that worldly carnal foolishness. He said that you put off concerning the formal conversation. That old man, he called it old man. That old man means that just symbolic that old way you used to live. That's the old man. The new man is Jesus that you put on. But he says, put off concerning the form of conversation. That word conversation in the Greek means lifestyle, the way you live. Don't mean talking like we use it today in English. But the the Greek definition is put off the form of way you used to live. That old man, the Bible said, he says, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust. That y'all let me tell you something. That old way we used to live, that old man, he was corrupt. See, that's and some of us still have not completely gotten rid of that old link, that old lifestyle. That old, that, that old way we used to live. Some of we have residuals, moments where we let him come back. But he tells the people in the church, you got to put it off. Because it's just full of corruption and it's full of deceitful lust. He tells them in verse 23, be renewed in the spirit of your mind. When you take all that stuff off and change your life, you got to renew it and replace it with something that's new and fresh. That's Jesus. But then again, I like what he says in verse 27. He said, Neither give place to the devil. Because he's lurking and looking outside your door, outside your woman, outside your life, outside your situation and your circumstance. He's lurking just so he can mess it up to keep your mindset where it is. So you won't act in a holy way, you won't act in a godly manner. See, who or what we were before we were transformed is considered to be our former self. See, if we have put off that old life, which the Bible calls the old man, because that was our old selves. We also should have put off those old sinful ways and lusts and habits. Them things got to go, y'all. We ain't going to heaven with that stuff. See, when we become renewed in our minds through Jesus and the word of God, we will be strengthened. Listen to me. This is where you're going to get your strength. You will be strengthened and shall be able to resist and refuse from becoming the porn devils. Them low-ranking devils. See, the devil is trying to make us into devils. Just like God is trying to make us into being like Jesus. The devil is trying to make us into being just like the devil. And you don't want that. We got to resist, and we got to refuse from allowing the enemy to come to try to make us become his pawn devils, which the enemy is trying to transform us into. These, listen, excuse me. There must be a transformation in our thinking from our old ways and our old way of thinking. All that's got to change. We just got to be transformed. See, the word of God teaches that with our minds being renewed, we can by faith no longer give a place for the devil to abide in our lives. We can put him out. You can put him out if you want to put him out. You can stop serving him if you want to stop serving him. You can stop doing his dirty deeds if you really want to stop doing them. Because the power of God will help you. The enemy will have us stay like the world, but God will have us through Christ to become like him. That's what God wants. He wants to see more people with Jesus than they like. See, as a witness, I'm a witness to this here. I can truly tell you that if we yield ourselves to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, I can tell you that our lives will never, listen to me, and I mean never, ever be the same ever again. When you let Jesus come into your life the right way, your life will never be the same again. And to me, that's a beautiful thing. For God to change my life and me give, yield my Accepting him to renew me because all of us know there was a that old man, that old life we lived, there was a lot of ugly things about us. Well, you want to meet it or not. If you were a sailor, you there were some ugly things about you. Let's just tell the truth. There are some ugly things about us. And it's beautiful, though, when we can let God change our lives and renew our minds from that old foolishness that the devil was trying to keep us rooted in. See, this state of spiritual being is the what I call the pre-transformation change. See, this is the pre-transformation change. Before the ultimate transformation changes, when Jesus said, See, that's I told y'all I did a message a few months back about when Jesus comes, the Bible said we're gonna change in that twinkling of the eye. See, that's the ultimate change coming. But before that can happen, we must go through a pre-transformation change. See, let us be clear and I understand it that when the archangel blows the trumpet of God, there can be no ultimate transformation in us if we have not gone through the process of pre-transformation and change phase before he gets here. You can't get the ultimate if you have not done the pre. See, the pre-transformation is what we do while we here on earth. The ultimate transformation is what the power of God is gonna do upon us when Jesus comes on the clouds. That ultimate ultimate gonna change us into immortals. And I can bag all that up with the word of God. And that's got to stop. That's what's got to stop. See, this kind of mind does not want to be transformed. That corrupt sinful mind, it don't want to be transformed. It is the renewed mind in faith and God's word which opens the door for the changes in our spiritual man. One of the main reasons why a lot of our lives are the way that they are is simply because we have not yet been transformed and our minds have not yet been renewed. We have not changed our ways, and our hearts and our minds are yet like the world. We have become good at talking, Jesus, on the outward surface of our lives. We talk a good game by Jesus, but our hearts on the inside is yet unchanged and have not been transformed. If our lives have been transformed by the word of God, would our behavior be the way that it is? Would our behavior still be the way it is? Would it be so easy to awaken the old person we used to be with somebody trying to argue with us and get us mad? Would it be so easy to pull back up that old self that you had if you have been transformed and renewed? Could we yet see ourselves behave in such a manner that is nothing like the Father or the Son? Don't never see Jesus in our life. Get mad one time, you'll see just how much devil it is in us. My brothers and my sisters, if we cannot see any change or transformation in our own selves, corruption is still present within us. And I might as well tell you, corruption is seen. I speak in this way because a lot of us yet have hard hearts and stubborn wills. In order for the transformation which God wants to happen, our the heart of our fallow ground must be busted up. And some of our hearts are so hard, that's why God got to let certain things come in our life to bust that up out of us so that we can be changed. Before I let you go, before I let you go, allow me to reveal unto you something about the will of God. I've spoken of this many times before, that the will of God is that we be conformed to the image of his son Jesus. This is what God is trying to get us to do, y'all. See, and if you read this particular passage in the Bible, you will read that God, he says in his word, has foreknown ahead of time who will be conformed to the image of his son. He knew, he, God already knows how many of us and who of us is gonna really be willing to change and and and present ourselves as a living sacrifice. He already knows those who are gonna be willing to yield themselves to have their mind renewed. He already knows those who are gonna be yield themselves to live according to his word. He already knew. The Bible said full of, he already foreknew this. Read that in the Bible. He knows this because he already knows those who would truly, this is how he knows. God knows who truly loved him. Come on now. If somebody loves you, you know who truly loved you. Even us natural, in our natural sense. Now, don't you know God knows who loves him too? And God see our love for him in those by how we live in this world. If you constantly in a 24-hour period of day living more hours for the devil than you living for God, God sees that you love the devil more than you love him. But there are those who truly love him 24 hours a day. They don't let nobody get rattled, they cage, don't let nobody get on their nerves, they don't let nobody pull them back into that old lifestyle, how much they cuss, or how ugly they act, or how rude they may be. They don't let nobody pull them back because their focus is on the Lord and they're trying to please him who looking down and see them do everything and hear everything they say. And their love for God will have them not do certain things simply because their love for God is more stronger than them getting somebody's toe or them doing singing. They love God more than that. And this is why God has known them from the beginning, who it is. Before Jesus gets back, he knows who God is gonna give in to his will and obey him. God already knows those who truly love him. And it is this love for God which will work together for their good. That's gonna work. See, your love for God is gonna cause God to bless you in ways that he ain't blessing other people. That's why I say it's gonna work for their good. Read that when you get tired. It's gonna work for their good. Because they have been called according to God's purpose. And they will be the ones whose minds shall be renewed. Renewed the way God wants to renew, with nothing but the word of God, holy and righteous. They are the ones who will be transformed and changed because they refuse to be conformed to this world. You got some people, they got tired of living this way this world wants them to live. And they isolate themselves and they commit themselves to living like God wants them to live, no matter what happens, right up or down, good or bad, bad days or good days, they not gonna leave the Lord. Or let that cause their day and what happened in their day cause them to deviate from living according to the Word of God. Because they refuse to be conformed to this world, that they may be ready for their ultimate and immortal transformation. This morning's message transformed. God bless you. God bless you.