SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grant Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: Helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grant Parkway, visit GrantProquay.org.
SPEAKER_01: So, Lord, let our lives take on the texture of your word today.
SPEAKER_01: Your word is as resplendent as you are.
SPEAKER_01: It's as glorious as you are.
SPEAKER_01: It's as true as you are.
SPEAKER_01: And so when we come to the Bible, we're seeing the highest revelation of God's nature.
SPEAKER_01: It's not the latest emotional experience we had, it's the concrete reality of your word.
SPEAKER_01: So we've come to submit to it, to bow our intellect down before it and say, Yes, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, just speak this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Illuminate the scriptures, cause it to come alive and take root in our lives, we pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to Romans chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to talk to you this morning from Romans chapter 12 about why you should never go to the Grand Canyon.
SPEAKER_01: Why you should never go to the Grand Canyon.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just by a show of hands.
SPEAKER_01: How many people in this room have ever been to the Grand Canyon?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, you know there's the Grand Canyon, okay?
SPEAKER_01: If you've been to the Grand Canyon, you shouldn't have gone, and I'm gonna tell you why.
SPEAKER_01: If you're our guest today, we've been preaching to the book of Romans.
SPEAKER_01: We did all the first 11 chapters, and this morning I'm just gonna preach about two verses Romans chapter 12, verse 1 and 2, under the title of Why You Should Never Go to the Grand Canyon.
SPEAKER_01: As most of you know, during the holidays or after Christmas, my family loads up in the minivan, sexy, and goes to Florida to my in-laws for a week, where we just kind of hang out and do stuff.
SPEAKER_01: I fix stuff around my in-law's house.
SPEAKER_01: One of the things I do while I'm there, I have a friend named Don Minton.
SPEAKER_01: Don Minton lives in Pensacola.
SPEAKER_01: He and I get together for breakfast at Panera Bread because we're two old guys and hang out.
SPEAKER_01: And uh we got together for breakfast like we always do uh after Christmas, and we're kind of talking.
SPEAKER_01: And Don, all you gotta know about Don is he is a rabid Auburn University fan, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Or University of Auburn.
SPEAKER_01: Is it Eddie?
SPEAKER_01: Is it Auburn University or Auburn?
SPEAKER_01: Auburn.
SPEAKER_01: It says Auburn.
SPEAKER_01: Auburn is a college in Alabama, apparently.
SPEAKER_01: If you live in Alabama, whatever, it's Alabama or Auburn.
SPEAKER_01: He is diehard Auburn all the way.
SPEAKER_01: And so, matter of fact, during the Iron Bubble, when the guy ran the kickoff back 108 yards, I texted Don.
SPEAKER_01: I said, I hope you're at the game.
SPEAKER_01: He texted back, I am here.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, dude, you're like 54.
SPEAKER_01: Get off the field, you're gonna get run over.
SPEAKER_01: But he's just rapping.
SPEAKER_01: So I just, in the course of conversation, we're talking about how's your church?
SPEAKER_01: And we're talking about his, he works at a church.
SPEAKER_01: We're just talking, I said, So, are you going to the national championship game?
SPEAKER_01: Because Auburn tomorrow night plays Florida State.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, No, no, I went back in 2009 when they were out in Arizona.
SPEAKER_01: We went, my wife and one of our daughters, we went, and and and and it was kind of it was kind of weird because we went to the national championship game and we were there, and it's about$3,000 for us to go.
SPEAKER_01: And then the next day we went up to the Grand Canyon, and he kind of got not sad, but kind of melancholy.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, even after the game was over, I was kind of like, I don't know if this is a good idea.
SPEAKER_01: And then the next day I went to the Grand Canyon, I realized it wasn't a good idea.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: He said, Because kind of going to the Grand Canyon, I just was just kind of like, ah, I don't think I sh I don't know that I wanted to do, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: And as he said, so I don't know that I'll ever do that again.
SPEAKER_01: And people in his church come up and go, hey, are you going to the National Championship game?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, No, I'm not going.
SPEAKER_01: They're all like, and I said, just tell them you've been to the Grand Canyon.
SPEAKER_01: They'd be like, What's that got to do with it?
SPEAKER_01: You're probably wondering why I'm telling you that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you that because so far in Romans, we've kind of been, Romans chapters 1 to 11, we've been to this theological Grand Canyon.
SPEAKER_01: Because you see, now Paul kind of turns the corner and he calls us to the outworkings of the experience that we've had.
SPEAKER_01: And he says these words in Romans chapter 12, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Just two verses.
SPEAKER_01: He says, 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.
SPEAKER_01: Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
SPEAKER_01: And you say, Well, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: There's just three things that I want I want to draw attention to in the text this morning.
SPEAKER_01: The first one is the motivation, the second one is the logic.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a person that's scientific or you're an engineer, whatever, and you're like, I reject Christianity because it doesn't make any sense, that I want to talk to you this morning.
SPEAKER_01: And then lastly, I want to talk about the balance because there's always balance in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible does not call us to this extremism, this radical fundamentalism where we go around yelling at people and trying to win religious discussions.
SPEAKER_01: Not at all.
SPEAKER_01: There's this beautiful, simple balance in the Bible that I want to end on this morning.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to begin by talking about the motivation.
SPEAKER_01: And the motivation that Paul says, he says, I appeal to you, brothers, uh, by the mercies of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, just hear this again.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't say mercy, he says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, when he says therefore, some translations I read and preach from the ESV, but some translations begin verse chapter 12 with therefore.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's kind of like, and it's not just what I said at the end of chapter 11 or all of chapter 11.
SPEAKER_01: It's everything I've been saying.
SPEAKER_01: I've been kind of just piling it up for 11 chapters to get to this point where I could just kind of turn and we go from doctrine to kind of duty, from this kind of indicatives to this imperative.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like, hey, I've been telling you all this stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And in the first part of Romans, we start off, and basically Paul says, hey, man is depraved beyond anything.
SPEAKER_01: God gave them over, God gave them over.
SPEAKER_01: And the third time in chapter one, he says, and God gave them over.
SPEAKER_01: He says he gave them over to a depraved mind to do what ought not to be done.
SPEAKER_01: And so all of humanity has been handed over to what feels natural and preferable to them.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says it's what ought not to be done.
SPEAKER_01: And then from chapter one to chapter two, it doesn't get any better.
SPEAKER_01: He turns the corner in chapter two and says, Hey, you religious people, don't rejoice that these irreligious people, these Gentiles, these pagans, don't know God.
SPEAKER_01: You're not any better than they are.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have a relationship with me.
SPEAKER_01: You're just religious.
SPEAKER_01: You're just religiously lost, is what he tells the Jews.
SPEAKER_01: And he kind of builds up.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 3 says, All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes on a few chapters later and says, Hey, the wages, the paycheck for sin is death.
SPEAKER_01: Sin's a big deal.
SPEAKER_01: Paul establishes that in the first part of Romans.
SPEAKER_01: First four chapters of Romans, basically the theme is that, hey, that man is depraved and sinful and beyond repair.
SPEAKER_01: And then chapters 5 to 8, he says, by the way, God demonstrates now that I've told you by nature how sinful you are.
SPEAKER_01: Remember a long time ago I used to tell you that you by nature are sinners and you deserve to go to hell?
SPEAKER_01: Remember that?
SPEAKER_01: Let me just remind you again.
SPEAKER_01: That's still true.
SPEAKER_01: You by nature are sinners and you're wicked beyond cure, and your heart is not disposed towards God.
SPEAKER_01: My heart's not naturally disposed towards God.
SPEAKER_01: So I could have been born and God could have never revealed Himself to me, and God could still be a loving God, and I could have gone to hell, and I couldn't accuse God of any kind of injustice.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that because I believe the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: God didn't owe me a chance.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't like some of you are better activists than you are Christians.
SPEAKER_01: You read good doctrine like in the book of Romans, and you're like, well, what about those people that never hear?
SPEAKER_01: Or I got a problem with a God that would create anybody and then not choose them.
SPEAKER_01: Who are you, old man, that you would answer back to God?
SPEAKER_01: You've kind of somehow lost a wonder of the fact that he revealed himself in mercy to you.
SPEAKER_01: But chapter after he kind of builds this case in the first four chapters and says, Hey, you are horribly sinful and obsessed with your sin.
SPEAKER_01: And then chapters 5 to 8, he builds a case and he begins chapter 5 early on by saying, Hey, by the way, God demonstrates the fact that he loved us and that he sent his son to die for us while we were still sinners.
SPEAKER_01: See, everything the Bible says, it doesn't just say it, it says it for a reason.
SPEAKER_01: So he says in the beginning, hey, if you understand what a wretch you are, then you understand what a wonder it is that God loves you.
SPEAKER_01: And he ends chapter 8 by saying, by the way, this love of God that I told you that he demonstrated after I told you you were all wretches, both religious and irreligious, he ends chapter 8 by saying, Nothing's gonna separate you from this love of God.
SPEAKER_01: Not height nor depth, life or death or anything in all creation.
SPEAKER_01: This love that God has for you is so certain.
SPEAKER_01: And then he begins chapter 9 to 11, and he kind of talks about how you experience that, that it doesn't depend on man's effort or desire, but on God who has mercy.
SPEAKER_01: The first and only time, the first time the word mercy is used in the book of Romans is in chapter 9, the chapter no one wants to read.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Hey, by the way, it's resplendent and full and overflowing with God's mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just kind of read when I say the motivation, the the the the motivation is mercy.
SPEAKER_01: That's why he says in chapter 12, verse 1, he says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you don't understand the mercy of God, you've got you say, Well, thanks for the recap of all of Romans.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta get this in your head because then you don't you don't understand mercy.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't understand what a wretch you are, and that God loves wretches.
SPEAKER_01: You know he loves wretches, right?
SPEAKER_01: Hello.
SPEAKER_01: He loves wretches, he loves sinful people, he loves people that are jacked up, screwed up, messed up.
SPEAKER_01: It's like I like going to my in-laws in Florida because they live kind of outside in a little country, well, outside of Pensacola, and apparently all they have there is like convenience stores and tattoo parlors because everybody there is just tatted up with bad tattoos and they smoke meth.
SPEAKER_01: And you say, How do you know?
SPEAKER_01: They got about four teeth in their head.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you go to a restaurant, there's more ears in there than teeth.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: And so I kind of find myself looking around, and very clearly God says, I love these people.
SPEAKER_01: These people are jacked up.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to let them know that.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to overtip that waitress over there who can't remember anything, like that.
SPEAKER_01: We're here and we're hungry.
SPEAKER_01: I had to tell one lady, we're not leaving until you bring us food.
SPEAKER_01: Just gonna give you a heads up about my intentions for this time.
SPEAKER_01: I want to eat, and it's your job to bring me food to eat.
SPEAKER_01: No pressure.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, you know, I know.
SPEAKER_01: I just oh, I just can't remember anything.
SPEAKER_01: Smoke less meth.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm trying, honey, but it's hard.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm just thinking, oh, yeah, and I'm making light of that person.
SPEAKER_01: God loves those people.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't believe, I mean, the person that you have the tendency to look down on the most and kind of just kind of write off the most, here's how you know you understand that God loves you.
SPEAKER_01: He loves that person as much as he loves you.
SPEAKER_01: And he's not gonna stop loving those people.
SPEAKER_01: He's not gonna say, oh, your behavior, that's enough.
SPEAKER_01: If I had known you were gonna smoke meth, I would have never died on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: No, he's just gonna keep pouring out love on those people the same way he did for you.
SPEAKER_01: That's why he says, hey, in view of God's mercies, and when you gotta get your head around this, that God is so mercy, the motivation is not duty, it's not guilt, it's not I ought to or I should.
SPEAKER_01: It's hey, I've been unfolding.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just read you a couple things that the Bible said.
SPEAKER_01: Salvation depends not on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy.
SPEAKER_01: And his purpose is to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy.
SPEAKER_01: As disobedient Gentiles have now received mercy, so too disobedient Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, religious people will now receive mercy.
SPEAKER_01: For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he might have mercy on them all.
SPEAKER_01: So now we come to chapter 12, and he says, in view of God's mercies, do you see God's mercy?
SPEAKER_01: Because if you don't see God's mercy, everything the Bible tells you to do is gonna sound like an insult to your better ideas and your personal preferences.
SPEAKER_01: Because Romans chapter 12, if you're like into Bible trivia, has more commands in it than any chapter in the entire New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: And there's a lot of stuff in here, and you're gonna go, oh well, I that's just kind of not me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm not there.
SPEAKER_01: I appreciate that the Bible says that, but I'm not gonna say that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm not gonna go there.
SPEAKER_01: And how you go there, how you go from what is natural to what is supernatural is in view of God's mercies.
SPEAKER_01: So you gotta understand, I have to understand the role that mercy plays in everything the Bible asks us to do.
SPEAKER_01: See, the motivation for what the Bible says is mercy.
SPEAKER_01: And he ends verse one with this.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present.
SPEAKER_01: See, that's the motivation.
SPEAKER_01: Now, here's the logic.
SPEAKER_01: He says, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
SPEAKER_01: Now hear that last part again.
SPEAKER_01: He says, This is what a and what once you get affirm and fixed in your head how merciful God is, here's what you do.
SPEAKER_01: You present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, those are if somebody asks you over the holidays, hey, describe yourself in two words.
SPEAKER_01: Most of you would not pick holy and acceptable, would you?
SPEAKER_01: Hello?
SPEAKER_01: Would you?
SPEAKER_01: No, you would, you because even if you thought it was true, it kind of sounds arrogant to say, hey, tell me about you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm holy and acceptable.
SPEAKER_01: And kind of fool of yourself, aren't you, you weasel?
SPEAKER_01: No, the Bible says, see, here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: If anybody ever asks you, hey, what's the book of Romans about?
SPEAKER_01: You go to a church, they talk, they talk about that, didn't they?
SPEAKER_01: You can just say the whole first 11 chapters of Romans is about how people who are by nature unholy and unacceptable to God.
SPEAKER_01: You know that's how you were born, right?
SPEAKER_01: Unholy and unacceptable.
SPEAKER_01: Let's break off ties with this cultural mantra that says we're all God's children.
SPEAKER_01: No, we're not.
SPEAKER_01: We're all God's creation, but that didn't make you God's child just because you were born.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Jesus said to a very religious man in John 3, hey, hey, marvel not, you gotta be born again.
SPEAKER_01: But see, he said, you offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable.
SPEAKER_01: Because the Bible embraced this, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says now that you know God, that you've been chosen by God, you're holy and acceptable.
SPEAKER_01: So you never have to come into his presence, kind of wondering how he's gonna think or what he's gonna feel or what he's gonna do.
SPEAKER_01: And and why?
SPEAKER_01: Because you've been made holy and acceptable.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to earn entrance into his presence.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to like live up to some kind of moral standard.
SPEAKER_01: You do, but but that's not the way you earn God's uh uh approval.
SPEAKER_01: You're approved by God.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because you're holy and acceptable.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Paul's been teaching us for 11 chapters.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, hey, this is what now that you understand the mercies of God, here's what you do: you offer up your to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable God.
SPEAKER_01: And here's a phrase I want us to think about for just a minute, which is your spiritual worship, which is your spiritual worship.
SPEAKER_01: Now that you're gonna I don't know what that means.
SPEAKER_01: That's kind of nebulous and fuzzy.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean spiritual worship?
SPEAKER_01: Actually, spiritual is a bad translation of the word in the Greek.
SPEAKER_01: The word in the Greek is logikos.
SPEAKER_01: Logikos, it's where we get our English word logic.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're an intellectual, if you're an engineer, if you're kind of like, hey, for Christmas, I got a slide rule and a protractor.
SPEAKER_01: Let me talk to you just for a minute.
SPEAKER_01: If you're like, I've got a calculator and I can go 10 to the 20th power.
SPEAKER_01: Let me, the Bible says, hey, when you read, if you start reading in Romans chapter 1, verse 1, and this afternoon you put on a pot of coffee and you read from Romans chapter 1, verse 1, all the way to the end of Romans chapter 11, verse 36, where he kind of ends on who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor, who's ever given to God anything that God should repay him for from him and through him, and to him are all things.
SPEAKER_01: To him be the glory forever.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, because this is true and everything I've said at this point is true, I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, because this is the least you can do.
SPEAKER_01: This is your spiritual, this is the logical response.
SPEAKER_01: So if you've sat in this church, while we've been teaching the book of Romans for all this time and you don't have a relationship with God, you should find in you some kind of a desire to kind of give yourself to God.
SPEAKER_01: You should go to your car on some Sundays and have some desires in you that you've never had before.
SPEAKER_01: You may not be there yet, but you may not be as hostile to this as you used to be.
SPEAKER_01: You may not be so driven to disqualify the Bible based on some conspiracy theory you saw on the History Channel.
SPEAKER_01: There may be just a more favorable disposition in you.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because that's a logical response to what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: Christianity is not emotional, that's a part of it.
SPEAKER_01: It's logical.
SPEAKER_01: The logic is simply this hey, offer up your bodies as an offering to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which, by the way, doing that is i i i i it's just the most logical thing you can do.
SPEAKER_01: And when he says bodies, he's not just referring to your physical body, but the sum total of your personhood, all that is offered up to God in response for the fact that he offered his son up for you and for me.
SPEAKER_01: Simply put, he's saying, Hey, if you want to demonstrate that you understand what the Bible says, this is what you do with it.
SPEAKER_01: This is how it kind of fleshes itself out.
SPEAKER_01: In a phrase, it's everything.
SPEAKER_01: It's everything.
SPEAKER_01: It's not, you don't understand the magnitude of the gospel and kind of go, yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm going off to college, and you just kind of put that on hold because I'm gonna go get my freak on, and then I'll be back, and I want to talk about this when I got kids and a minivan.
SPEAKER_01: You you will weep your eyes out.
SPEAKER_01: Because it happens for many people.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like, oh, well, you know, hey, great, wonderful.
SPEAKER_01: One of my daughter, my oldest coaches go right across the street.
SPEAKER_01: One of her teachers said, Oh, your parents are so strict and so conservative, you're gonna go off to college and go off a deep end.
SPEAKER_01: So I'll be visiting the campus this week.
SPEAKER_01: Just to say, hey, listen, I don't need parenting advice from a woman who's never been married, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And I don't need you telling my kid what you did.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care what you did when you were in college.
SPEAKER_01: But the person that goes off to college goes off the deep end demonstrates I understand the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: I came to church and did Jesus stuff because my parents made me.
SPEAKER_01: But there's nothing really in my heart restraining me and guiding me.
SPEAKER_01: We'll get to that in just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: But nothing kind of propelling me forward to live a life that is that that is unnatural in this culture, but very natural in the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Hey, this is the this is the logical thing.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's it's it's it's everything.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, it's not just here, it's all through the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Start reading in Genesis chapter 1, and you see when people finally understand who God is and what God's about, they just kind of give him everything.
SPEAKER_01: At one point, Ezekiel, he finally saw it and he just fell to the ground like a dead man.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: Aren't you glad that's in there?
SPEAKER_01: He says, I just I just shook and became like a dead man.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel, same thing.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah chapter 6, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord lofty and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple, and above him were seraphs, each with six wings, and with two wings that covered their feet, and with two wings that covered their face, and with two wings they flew.
SPEAKER_01: And they were calling out to one another: holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.
SPEAKER_01: The whole earth is full of his glory, and at the sound of their voices, the doorposts and the temples shook, and all of a sudden I realized there's something in the world bigger than me.
SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh! And he said, in response, I am ruined.
SPEAKER_01: I am ruined.
SPEAKER_01: The problem with most of us is we've never been ruined for this ordinary life you insist on living.
SPEAKER_01: You've just never been ruined.
SPEAKER_01: I'm ruined.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the king.
SPEAKER_01: Everything was great until I saw the king.
SPEAKER_01: I was regular, but now I'm kind of ruined.
SPEAKER_01: I'm kind of jacked up, I'm kind of messed up in the way I think about things.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't go post on Facebook or get some pictures on Pinterest or anything.
SPEAKER_01: He just said this.
SPEAKER_01: This is crazy.
SPEAKER_01: Here am I.
SPEAKER_01: Send me.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because it's the natural, logical response to the gospel, to the revelation of God to just put everything out there and just say, Here am I.
SPEAKER_01: Just do with me whatever you want.
SPEAKER_01: I've done so little with this.
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: I'm trying, I'm tired of putting pictures and captions and trying to convince everybody my life is really interesting, God.
SPEAKER_01: You and I both know that I get in bed at night and I am radically underachieved for another 24-hour period of my life, and I've got everybody fooled, but I can't fool you.
SPEAKER_01: If you have those thoughts, God's inviting you to just get ruined.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, Hey, happy new year.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just knock it off.
SPEAKER_01: See, that's the logical response.
SPEAKER_01: It's just everything.
SPEAKER_01: So my meditation for the past five days has just been the word everything.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, that's the theme of the rest of Romans.
SPEAKER_01: Romans chapter 12, all the way to chapter 16, is just everything.
SPEAKER_01: Everything.
SPEAKER_01: He's going to talk in the and we we've we've kind of divided it out, and the preaching schedule is set from now to April the 6th.
SPEAKER_01: If you're wondering when we're going to get through with Romans, on April the 6th.
SPEAKER_01: That's when we're going to get through.
SPEAKER_01: He's going to talk about your relationship to yourself, your relationship to authorities, your relationship.
SPEAKER_01: To your enemies, and he's gonna say crazy things like, Hey, hey, when your enemy mistreats you, don't, don't, don't, don't just mistreat them back.
SPEAKER_01: Do good to them, and in so doing, you'll heap coals on their head.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you are like, Yeah, I want to build a fire on somebody's head.
SPEAKER_01: It's not what he's saying.
SPEAKER_01: That'd feel good, wouldn't it?
SPEAKER_01: You're like, yeah, I got some people I want to burn down.
SPEAKER_01: No, because when it was cold, they would take coals and wrap them in this blanket and put it on their head to comfort themselves.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says, comfort people who treat you wrongly.
SPEAKER_01: See, unless you get this everything.
SPEAKER_01: So I just think, God, what is everything?
SPEAKER_01: What is everything?
SPEAKER_01: And then I made this mistake.
SPEAKER_01: I told you yesterday I need to repent.
SPEAKER_01: Did you get that?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, here's my repentance, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm in Florida and I just kind of fix stuff at my in-laws' house and we go out to eat, and and it's great, and I love it.
SPEAKER_01: I do cultural research.
SPEAKER_01: I just kind of look around and kind of go like Jane Goodall among the chimps.
SPEAKER_01: Go to the mall and people watch.
SPEAKER_01: If you see me at the mall sitting on a bench, don't come talk to me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just taking note of our culture.
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we get stuff for Christmas, and we get like a gift card, and we are just driven to spin that thing down.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like people just buying stuff they don't need.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, I want to just say to one lady, I bet you're gonna go home and tell your husband you need a bigger house.
SPEAKER_01: You don't need a bigger house, you need a smaller appetite.
SPEAKER_01: Just hauling bags of nonsense out of the mall, and I'm just like, and I don't look and judging, I'm just thinking, what can I get rid of?
SPEAKER_01: How can I make my house bigger?
SPEAKER_01: Get rid of some stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Go through your closet today and anything you haven't worn in the past six months, give it away.
SPEAKER_01: Go in your garage and anything you're not using, get rid of it.
SPEAKER_01: I wish I could see your faces.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, where's Aaron?
SPEAKER_01: Is he available?
SPEAKER_01: We you've been alone too long.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe.
SPEAKER_01: But here's my repentance.
SPEAKER_01: One of the things I do when I go to my in-laws is that I go just hang out and stay out of the way and let my in-laws worship my kids, which is horrible.
SPEAKER_01: But anyway, my kids enjoy it.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and they get free stuff.
SPEAKER_01: It's great.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but but but I almost got in a little verbal tiff with my mother-in-law because she said, Well, we're grandparents, we're supposed to spoil our grandkids.
SPEAKER_01: Where's that in the Bible?
SPEAKER_01: I don't want you to teach my kids to think more highly of themselves than they ought.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you, I'll just tell you what?
SPEAKER_01: That no one's ever said that.
SPEAKER_01: Well, they should.
SPEAKER_01: They should.
SPEAKER_01: I love my kids.
SPEAKER_01: They ain't missing any meals.
SPEAKER_01: Have you seen my kids lately?
SPEAKER_01: They ain't doing without.
SPEAKER_01: I just, if you're a grandparent, it ain't your job to spoil your grandkids.
SPEAKER_01: It is your responsibility to live a life that your grandkids look and say, hey, when I'm 78, I want to be that way.
SPEAKER_01: My grandpa's a crazy old man.
SPEAKER_01: He's just crazy stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And it's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: I want to go, I want to go hang out with my grandparents for the summer, for a week in the summer, not because I'm going to come back with loot, but when I'm going to come back and I'm going to be ruined to think like every other 15-year-old that I know.
SPEAKER_01: Because my grandfather's going to wake me up and say, hey son, let's go leverage the kingdom today.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to be like, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what that means, but okay.
SPEAKER_01: And so that discussion didn't end well.
SPEAKER_01: And I said to my mother, who I love.
SPEAKER_01: You ever wonder sometimes if you give them so much stuff because you don't know what else to give them?
SPEAKER_01: You're here at the end of your life and you realize maybe this isn't real for you like it once was.
SPEAKER_01: It's sentiment, not principle.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you don't want to have that conversation when you got three days still to go, stay in there.
SPEAKER_01: And I see the look on your face that some of you are like, man, I'm glad you ain't my in-law.
SPEAKER_01: That's fine.
SPEAKER_01: Love my in-laws, they're great people.
SPEAKER_01: They'll both be closer to the throne than I am.
SPEAKER_01: But I still don't want my kids to get up and think I'm awesome and the world revolves around me.
SPEAKER_01: I tell them they're awesome.
SPEAKER_01: They are.
SPEAKER_01: They're great kids.
SPEAKER_01: Don't go to my daughters and kind of go, I feel sorry for you.
SPEAKER_01: You're dead.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: They're okay.
SPEAKER_01: They're doing fine.
SPEAKER_01: The point is, is there ought to come a point where everything, so I'm I'm sitting there reading, and I read this.
SPEAKER_01: This is a pastor in Oklahoma, a very godly, godly man that's been hammering away at it for 40 years.
SPEAKER_01: And he wrote this article, 40 years of pastoral ministry, things I wished I'd known.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm reading down the list and I'm kind of checking myself and I'm thinking I'm doing pretty good, I'm doing pretty good.
SPEAKER_01: And I get to number eight.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what I need to repent of.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not kidding, I'm not trying to be funny.
SPEAKER_01: I was pierced by this.
SPEAKER_01: He says, number eight, I wish I'd known it was okay to talk about money.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be afraid to talk about money.
SPEAKER_01: For far too many years, I allowed my disdain for prosperity gospel advocates and preachers to silence my voice on the importance of financial stewardship in Christian growth and maturity.
SPEAKER_01: I did not formulate a strategy for calling people to lifelong financial generosity without sounding self-serving.
SPEAKER_01: And when I read that, I wanted to cry.
SPEAKER_01: Because very clearly the Holy Spirit said, That's you.
SPEAKER_01: I think you've let your people off the hook kneel.
SPEAKER_01: They're generous to some degree.
SPEAKER_01: You see, we'll get to the part because I want us to repent of something in just a minute as well.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to just repent.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to repent, not because I'm lonely and need company, but because we all need transformation in this area.
SPEAKER_01: Because we've all the mantras that all preachers do is talk about money, and this church is pretty generous, and so I don't have to talk about it.
SPEAKER_01: And I kind of tried to rationalize with God and say, God, I don't have to talk about money much.
SPEAKER_01: These people give, and God's like, hey, you just preach the Bible, and it's not just money, it's stewardship.
SPEAKER_01: It's this, and here's the phrase that just cut me to the quick.
SPEAKER_01: He says, calling people to lifelong financial generosity.
SPEAKER_01: And you say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Because it's easy for us to be generous as long as we got kids in the children's ministry or students in the student ministry.
SPEAKER_01: But when we get an empty nest and we got a lot of more disposable income, we kind of shrink it back in and kind of go, it's my time now.
SPEAKER_01: And that's a sin.
SPEAKER_01: And so I just want to confess that.
SPEAKER_01: I think I failed you in that area, and I want to repent and ask your forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm not saying, and starting next week, I'm gonna preach on my no.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I want us to repent of.
SPEAKER_01: I want us to repent of loving everybody and everything more than we love ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: That sounds unbiblical, but it's very biblical.
SPEAKER_01: When the disciples asked Jesus, what is the greatest commandment?
SPEAKER_01: He said, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as you love yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes, Grand Parkway, I think we do a better job at loving our neighbor than we do loving ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: We say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: We give generously to causes and needs.
SPEAKER_01: We give like a country song, like Kenny Chesney lyric in a country song.
SPEAKER_01: I threw an extra 20 in the plate.
SPEAKER_01: Or we give when there's a need or a crisis.
SPEAKER_01: We give generously to causes and needs, but cautiously to what God is doing right here in our own midst.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't think that's okay.
SPEAKER_01: And so we need to repent of that.
SPEAKER_01: You see, because it's it's all about this word everything.
SPEAKER_01: Because he says, hey, in view of God's mercies, I urge you, I appeal to you, in view of God's mercies, to present your bodies, not just your physical body, but your total personhood, anything having everything to do with you as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, done and done, which is your spiritual worship, which is your logical response.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be conform to this world.
SPEAKER_01: And thirdly and finally, it's just the balance.
SPEAKER_01: You've got the motivation, you've got the logic, and finally, the balance.
SPEAKER_01: The balance is just in verse 2 to not be conform to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, when it says what is good and acceptable and perfect, here's how you know he's talking about the will of God.
SPEAKER_01: The will of God is that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
SPEAKER_01: The will of God is good and acceptable and perfect to God first, not to you and me.
SPEAKER_01: We don't get to say this is what's good for me, this is what I'm willing to accept, and this is be perfect.
SPEAKER_01: Now, God, you you sort it out if this bothers you, okay?
SPEAKER_01: That's not the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: That's humanism in eloquent terms, but it's not the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: See, the balance, you say what I mean, the balance.
SPEAKER_01: Transformation involves both yes and no.
SPEAKER_01: It involves both yes.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be conformed to this world, to this age.
SPEAKER_01: Don't let I love what the mess, how the message translates.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Don't let this world squeeze you into its mold.
SPEAKER_01: The coffee shop that I go to in Pensacola is called the Drowsy Poet.
SPEAKER_01: I go every December I show up, and so the people that own it kind of, hey, you're you're the guy from Texas, right?
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, yeah, I'm just gonna sit over in the corner and drown in Romans.
SPEAKER_01: Just kind of, I'll be coming getting refills.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, that's great.
SPEAKER_01: Good to see you.
SPEAKER_01: How's your church?
SPEAKER_01: It's doing well.
SPEAKER_01: I'm very blessed and fortunate to be a part of it.
SPEAKER_01: Blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm sitting there, and the one guy comes over to check on me.
SPEAKER_01: He can't help but ask me questions.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm kind of like, hello?
SPEAKER_01: Hello?
SPEAKER_01: Is there anybody in this section of the coffee shop?
SPEAKER_01: All the talkers are in there.
SPEAKER_01: There was a meeting of the tea party going on.
SPEAKER_01: And I was just like, hello, that's great.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm all by myself.
SPEAKER_01: And he comes over and he says, Can I ask you a question?
SPEAKER_01: You're going to anyway, so go ahead.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_01: No, you're not sorry.
SPEAKER_01: If you were sorry, you wouldn't be talking to me right now.
SPEAKER_01: You're not sorry, just go ahead.
SPEAKER_01: What do you want?
SPEAKER_01: Well, what do you think?
SPEAKER_01: I know you're a pastor.
SPEAKER_01: What do you think about just Phil Robertson and A E and all that kind of stuff?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm just like, oh, full of love.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't he back on TV?
SPEAKER_01: You've got something to do now.
SPEAKER_01: He's back on TV.
SPEAKER_01: But instead, I just kind of smiled and I said, Hey, uh, because the Bible says always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is within you.
SPEAKER_01: Always be ready to explain to people why you live and think like you do.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not mad at A and E.
SPEAKER_01: And I just, here's what we we Christians, we should be asking ourselves, why this is news?
SPEAKER_01: He said, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Why is that national headline that a man who professes to be a Christian actually believes what the Bible says about morality and is willing to lose his job over it?
SPEAKER_01: Why is that news?
SPEAKER_01: And he didn't want to talk anymore.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, No, we're we're you you've broke the train of thought.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just sit here and have a sandwich.
SPEAKER_01: Go give me some free samples or something.
SPEAKER_01: Because I just need to understand why is that news that a man says, hey, I don't hate homosexuals.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not mad at anybody.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what the Bible says: you cannot live a lifestyle by an idolater, a fornicator, an adulterer, a homosexual, a drunkard, all these things.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible didn't single out one.
SPEAKER_01: The fall disposed us all to sin.
SPEAKER_01: And homosexuality is just a manifestation of sin.
SPEAKER_01: And at this point, the guy's like, I am slow dancing with a porcupine.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to get away from you.
SPEAKER_01: And I just grabbed him and squeezed him to me.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Why is that national news?
SPEAKER_01: I said, Really?
SPEAKER_01: You think this is like a gay versus straight thing?
SPEAKER_01: This is an indictment on the lack of moral courage of the American Christian.
SPEAKER_01: It's, hey, ABC, World News Tonight with Diane Sawyer update on Phil Robertson and A E.
SPEAKER_01: And pretty soon the Tea Party's letting out.
SPEAKER_01: And they're all turning the corner because they heard we're talking about and they're all coming over there.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm just like, are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: I just want to study Romans and drink coffee.
SPEAKER_01: Or you can't just go away.
SPEAKER_01: But they're there.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, we want to point at A and E and go, oh, you liberals, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: They're owned by ABC, and that which is owned by Disney.
SPEAKER_01: We should boycott Disney.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, ooh, ooh, ooh.
SPEAKER_01: But see, they think that way.
SPEAKER_01: And look at me, the reason they think that way is because their mind's not being renewed.
SPEAKER_01: You see, there's a balance.
SPEAKER_01: See, there's the motive, there's the logic, and there's the balance.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Don't the world squeeze you into its mold.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, it's an indictment upon all of us.
SPEAKER_01: That it's news that a man would say, you know what, I don't hate these people.
SPEAKER_01: I love everybody.
SPEAKER_01: But the Bible says this, and I believe that.
SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh! We ought to ask all you, you all of us should ask ourselves, how have you been living such that that shouldn't be news in Houston?
SPEAKER_01: There's so many churches in Houston they should just kind of go, well, yeah, Christians are supposed to believe what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible doesn't tell you to hate people that aren't like you.
SPEAKER_01: See, here's the balance.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, we demonstrate that our minds have been renewed by what we do with our bodies.
SPEAKER_01: You demonstrate that your mind has been renewed.
SPEAKER_01: You can come to church every Sunday and your mind never be renewed.
SPEAKER_01: It's just conscious south of what you do that nobody else knows about.
SPEAKER_01: But you demonstrate that your mind has been renewed because he says, and let's be done this morning, he says, don't be conformed to this world.
SPEAKER_01: Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold.
SPEAKER_01: Don't let the world squeeze you in, pressure you into thinking the way it thinks about morality or money or marriage or the future or cell phones or pizza or food or gluttony or all this stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Don't let the world kind of grind the edges off of absoluteness of absolute truth.
SPEAKER_01: But be transformed.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't stop there.
SPEAKER_01: Don't live and die notorious for what you're against.
SPEAKER_01: But be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing, that by holding up to the light of God's word, you can discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
SPEAKER_01: You say, Well, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Transformation happens because your mind is continually being renewed, constantly being subjected to the clear teaching of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And why?
SPEAKER_01: That by testing.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, you're gonna have to test some things this year.
SPEAKER_01: You know that, don't you?
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna have to test some things.
SPEAKER_01: You have to hold some things up to the light of the Bible and kind of go, that doesn't pass the test.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna have to say no to that.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because the world wants to squeeze you in.
SPEAKER_01: They come with this big general, oh, you don't want to, you're not like all the other religious right, are you, and judgmental and hateful, are you?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I didn't think you were so.
SPEAKER_01: And you gotta be careful.
SPEAKER_01: And just smile and go, oh, you know.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, you may lose your job for that.
SPEAKER_01: I believe the day is coming in America when preachers will lose their job because they preach the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Because the people they preach to will be so squeezed into the mold they can't hear it anymore.
SPEAKER_01: You'll have a preacher who lives in one world preaching to people who live in another.
SPEAKER_01: This world.
SPEAKER_01: Don't let this world, this age, this spirit, this ruling uh sphere of death and destruction squeeze you into its mold.
SPEAKER_01: That by testing you may discern what the will of God is.
SPEAKER_01: Sadly, when we think about the will of God, it's usually about our sophomore year of college.
SPEAKER_01: What am I gonna major in?
SPEAKER_01: What's God's will for my life?
SPEAKER_01: We think direction, not morality.
SPEAKER_01: And here's why your mind ought to be renewed.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, uh, we'll put slides up for these, but uh earlier, did you see when uh Lance was talking about Bible communities the first part of the service?
SPEAKER_01: Remember that during the announcements we're all doodling, telling our kids, shut up, put your coffee down, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we don't just tell you, hey, don't the world squeeze you in your mouth.
SPEAKER_01: We want to help you.
SPEAKER_01: We don't just say, hey, your mind ought to be renewed.
SPEAKER_01: We give you opportunities for your mind to be renewed.
SPEAKER_01: Like, let me just remind you, by way of example, that when the Bible communities, money, possessions, and eternity starts right after this, right upstairs.
SPEAKER_01: Money, possessions, and eternity.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, I studied some uh getting ready for something we're gonna do later on this spring.
SPEAKER_01: Did you know that the average in the average American church, only 7% of people practice the biblical model of tithing?
SPEAKER_01: Seven.
SPEAKER_01: Give what the Bible just says, hey, this is this is not like, oh, this is awesome.
SPEAKER_01: This is just a starting point.
SPEAKER_01: Seven.
SPEAKER_01: The freedom of self-forgetfulness happens right now.
SPEAKER_01: It's our joy class out in the warehouse.
SPEAKER_01: See, this is how your mind gets renewed.
SPEAKER_01: The circle maker, which is just a it's it's it's a study based on a book about prayer, happens right after this class in their couples' class right upstairs.
SPEAKER_01: Mike and Elaine Rice, Wade Emmy Burchis teach that.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a formula.
SPEAKER_01: It's not saying if you do this, boy, God's.
SPEAKER_01: It's just, hey, let's get specific about asking God to do some things.
SPEAKER_01: This is probably one, this is the gospel project.
SPEAKER_01: This is one the adults will be going through, but also kids will be going through.
SPEAKER_01: Happens right after this room, 211 right up here.
SPEAKER_01: Developing a Christian worldview.
SPEAKER_01: How your mind gets renewed, how you stop thinking like everyone else around you thinks.
SPEAKER_01: Like I have some friends that live together.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, and I love them.
SPEAKER_01: I don't yell at them when I see them.
SPEAKER_01: They come to church here on occasion.
SPEAKER_01: I don't see them and kind of go, hey, you sinners, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: And we have conversations, and they say, sometimes we don't like what you say.
SPEAKER_01: You're not supposed to.
SPEAKER_01: If you can live in sin and love your preacher, you should fire him.
SPEAKER_01: And I tell them, your issue is not your body, your issue is your mind.
SPEAKER_01: The issue is not that you live together.
SPEAKER_01: Your mind has not been renewed, it's not been brought into submission to what the Bible says is the will of God.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the thing that if you're living in sin, you may not be living together, you may be living together.
SPEAKER_01: And you're welcome here, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: If you're living in sin, you're welcome here.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a fornicator, you're welcome here.
SPEAKER_01: If you're an adulterer, you're welcome here.
SPEAKER_01: If you're an idolater, you're welcome here.
SPEAKER_01: If you're someone that struggles with same-sex attraction, you're welcome here.
SPEAKER_01: Because our hope and our belief is that your mind can be renewed.
SPEAKER_01: Your mind, not because of effort or duty, but because of this one simple thing: transformation.
SPEAKER_01: God is in the business of changing us from the inside out.
SPEAKER_01: And I said to them, hey, here's the deal.
SPEAKER_01: I know y'all probably done the math or run the numbers, and you kind of look and go, hey, this is good.
SPEAKER_01: This is good.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying it's not good.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying you look at each other and go, hey, playing house is kind of fun.
SPEAKER_01: We get to kind of do married things without all the, you know, and this is the favorite thing I hear.
SPEAKER_01: We don't need a piece of paper to tell us that we're married.
SPEAKER_01: In the eyes of God, you do.
SPEAKER_01: And we'll get to that in Romans 13.
SPEAKER_01: What happens when Neil goes away for a week?
SPEAKER_01: But I said, here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: As good as this is, the next time it's really great, and you look at each other and kind of go, Oh, these naysayers, they just need to lighten up.
SPEAKER_01: It's 2014.
SPEAKER_01: Come on.
SPEAKER_01: Living together is no big deal.
SPEAKER_01: We're millennials.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself this.
SPEAKER_01: If this is not the will of God, and it's not, and the Bible says the will of God is good and acceptable to God and perfect, why are you willing to settle for something that's less than what God says it could be?
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense to anybody but me?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying it's not good.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying it's not what it could be.
SPEAKER_01: That's all.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're here right now in this room and you're you're you're in sin, I'm not mad at you.
SPEAKER_01: No one's mad at you.
SPEAKER_01: We're not gonna catch you in the parking lot and kind of go, hey.
SPEAKER_01: Just gonna say, hey, this year holds out the opportunity for your mind to be made new.
SPEAKER_01: For your mind to be renewed, for you to not think the way you think about some things.
SPEAKER_01: And just man.
SPEAKER_01: So let's just close this morning with this simple question.
SPEAKER_01: What is an area in your life where you need to have your mind renewed?
SPEAKER_01: What is an area in your life?
SPEAKER_01: Like whoever runs the thermostat here needs to have their mind renewed.
SPEAKER_01: It's cold in here.
SPEAKER_01: I can feel myself getting sick because I'm standing up here.
SPEAKER_01: I'll be taking this week off.
SPEAKER_01: How do you get your how in what area?
SPEAKER_01: The Bible's very practical.
SPEAKER_01: What do I need to is it in the way I parent?
SPEAKER_01: Do I need to like think differently about the way I parent?
SPEAKER_01: Is it the way I spend money or what I do with my possessions or what I do with my time?
SPEAKER_01: Is it is it in my relationship with my wife?
SPEAKER_01: What what what what do I need to do?
SPEAKER_01: Just what area do you need to have your mind renewed?
SPEAKER_01: Or is it the Bible?
SPEAKER_01: I need to think differently about the Bible or church.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever it is, let's just let's just close this morning by just asking the Holy Spirit, just renew our minds.
SPEAKER_01: Stand to your feet, let me speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_01: You by nature are unholy and unacceptable people.
SPEAKER_01: Stiff-necked, hard-hearted God haters.
SPEAKER_01: That's what makes mercy magnificent.
SPEAKER_01: Your God has loved you, called you, and chosen you, and changed you into his beloved.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing can separate you.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing can change his mind about you.
SPEAKER_01: You are now the holy and accepted people of God.
SPEAKER_01: Depart and be who your Father says you are.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Bless you.
SPEAKER_01: You're dismissed.