Transformed Mind

[00:00:00] Good morning. I'd like to greet each one of you in Jesus' name this morning. I would like for you to turn in the Christian hymnal, and I'm not going to lead any songs, don't worry about that. But I'd like to look at those two songs that Dad had us sing consecutively, 163 and 451. If I would have picked two songs to go with the message this morning, I couldn't have done better. I know it's really easy to sing a song and not think about what we sang. [00:00:39] I want to talk this morning about a transformed mind. This weekend, down at what used to be Sharing Concerns, now the AMF conference meetings, the theme was a transformed mind. I was really challenged this weekend. Glenn Horst from Canada was the guest speaker. I don't know how many of you know who that is. One thing that he said a couple times is that I would covet your prayers. And I would say that this morning. [00:01:12] I would ask you to be praying for me as I share this morning. I want to share what God has. I want to share nothing more than what God has for me to say. So I would ask for your prayers this morning. A charge to keep I have, a God to glorify, a never-dying soul to save and fit it for the sky. How often have you thought about it that you have a never-dying soul to save and fit it for the sky? [00:01:46] We have a very serious charge to keep. I want to talk this morning about verse 3. Arm me with jealous care, as in thy sight to live. We are living in God's sight. And O thy servant, Lord, prepare a strict account to give. We will give a strict account. Assured if I in my trust betray, I shall forever die. There's different phrases down through these songs. [00:02:17] And then the next song, 451, My soul be on thy guard. Ten thousand foes arise. The hosts of sin are pressing hard to draw thee from the skies. Do we realize that the world is trying to draw us away from God? There's a book that Cheryl gave me, Intoxicated with Babylon. I still haven't read the whole thing, but it is a very, it's in the library. He does a much better job than I can do of explaining the word cosmos. [00:02:53] The word cosmos has to do with the entire created universe. And when man fell, man had been given the charge of the Garden of Eden, the charge of the earth, taking care of the earth. When man sinned, in a way, he relinquished control of the garden to Satan. Up until that time, it was man's home. When man sinned, he relinquished control of that. And from that day forward, Cosmos, the entire creation, is in opposition to God and is trying to defeat us and bring us down. [00:03:33] And I think the more we can realize that Cosmos, that the world, is against Christianity. It's not just something that we're not trying to be like them. Harold preached about worldliness. What is worldliness? But if we really understand that we need to have a transformed mind, a mind that is in opposition to the world. We do not even want the things of the world. We want to be as far from the world as possible, as unlike the world as possible. [00:04:07] We need to have our minds transformed in order for that to happen. You may think, well, here he goes again. I'd like to read 2 Peter 1, 1 through 15. I brought a cup of water up here. I told Lynn when I start packing the lunch, you've really got problems. 2 Peter 1, 1-15. [00:04:37] I read this, and I guess I feel like Peter. Peter, as long as I'm alive, it's my job to stir you up to think about what we're doing here. Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us. I thought that sounded just like today, they have obtained like precious faith. With us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. [00:05:10] Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness Through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue He has given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness We don't need any more than what we've been given Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature. [00:05:41] The divine nature. We need to have our nature changed. We need to be transformed. Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. [00:06:15] We are to be fruitful Christians. But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Notice the blindness there. That's something we're going to be talking about later. He that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off. and have forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore, the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you shall never fall. [00:06:46] We need to be diligent. We need to make our calling and election sure. This isn't something that is haphazard that we take for granted. For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Wherefore, I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet as long as I am in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance. Knowing that shortly I must put off this tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me. [00:07:22] Moreover, I will endeavor that ye may be able, after my decease, to have these things always in remembrance. I'm not really going to preach from this text this morning, but I just want you to think about We need to make our calling and election sure And I as a minister, it is my duty, my obligation to stir you up Even though these are things you know, these are things that it is my obligation to remind you of [00:07:54] Well, some of this I shared down at Battle of Memory Camp, so Tom and some of the campers that were there are going to get a little bit of reheated. How much did you cost? That's in the children's notes. Did all the children get notes that want them? Okay. Is there more out there? Maybe there's not enough. I don't know if there's enough out there or not. Right here. Anyone else? [00:08:28] Okay. First of all, I'd like to ask, and I'd like to hear some responses. Why did Jesus come to earth? Right up here is lame. Okay. To save sinners? To redeem us? To glorify God? To keep His Father's promise. Thank you. I think all of those are correct. The drive I want to get is what Tiffany said, to glorify God and to keep His Father's promise. [00:09:06] God invested in us by sending His Son. I don't want to take away from the thought that Jesus came because He loved us. I don't want to take away from that. But I want to drive that a little more, that Jesus came because He was sent by the Father. God loves us enough to send us His Son, and the thought I want to take from that is that Jesus came to fulfill His Father's will. When you and I look at serving God, when you and I look at being dedicated, sold out, born again Christians, [00:09:42] Do we look at the cost and say it's too high? I'll be a mediocre Christian. I'll be one that just floats along with the flow. Or am I going to be one that does what God asks no matter what? How much did you cost? God believed you were worth it. God sent His Son because He said, I believe it is worth sending My Son to redeem the human race. I love them that much. And were you a good investment? Was God's Son well spent on you? [00:10:16] We've all bought something somewhere, maybe a garage sale, maybe in a store, maybe new. We spent money on that. We got it home and it didn't work. It didn't do what we thought it would do. It didn't perform to its advertised capabilities. That's a poor investment. You buy something and you're disappointed in it. God invested His Son in you. Were you a good investment? Are you a good investment? How much does God love you? How much do you love God? Can others tell that you love God? What are you doing to show God that you love Him? [00:10:56] John 14, 15 says, if you love me, keep my commandments. If we love God, we will keep his commandments. It's easy for me to think of God, I know a lot of this they say is related to your father, how your father was. I tend to think of God as the supreme being and then Jesus being the mediator between me and God [00:11:27] and that is correct but just in studying this it really was brought out to me that God sent His Son it wasn't just that God said I demand justice and Jesus volunteered and said I'll go It was that God needed, He demanded justice, but He also said, in order to redeem them, I will send my Son. He didn't just simply allow Jesus to come. [00:11:59] John 3.16 says that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. He sent His Son. Jesus was sent to earth. Remember, here again, the reason I want to drive that home, Jesus was sent, was the fact that Jesus came to do His Father's will. That is why He came. It wasn't just simply because He loved us, and this was something He wanted to do. I don't want to take away from that, but I also want us to think about when God asks us to do something, He's asked His Son to do something much harder. [00:12:36] And his son did that and was faithful And we have no reason, no hint of an excuse For not serving Christ with all our heart after what he did for us 1 John 4, 9-10 And this was manifested the love of God toward us Because that God sent his only begotten son into the world That we might live through him Herein is love, not that we loved God for that He loved us, notice this is God, that God loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [00:13:15] John 6, 29, Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent. John 7, 29, But I know Him, for I am from Him, and He hath sent me. John 11.41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. This was at Lazarus' tomb. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard me. And I knew that Thou hearest me always, but because of the people which stand by, I said it, [00:13:47] that they may believe that Thou hast sent me. John 17.4 I have glorified Thee on the earth. I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do. When Jesus prayed to his father before he went to the cross, he said, I have done this. I have finished the work which thou hast given me to do. Jesus came because God asked him to come. Look at what he gave up to save our souls. Here again, just reminding you, thinking about what Jesus did for me out of obedience to the Father [00:14:23] and now what the Father might be asking me to do out of obedience. He left the comfort of heaven where He was King. Think of being the owner of heaven, the King of heaven, and coming to earth. There's a, when we go camping at Camp Fort Hill every year, there's, it's 160 acres of woods, there's a private lake, there's a, it's way back in off the road, it's just one of those places that every year when I go camping I think, wow, this would be a nice place to live. [00:15:04] Just live back in here. It's a beautiful piece of property. Jesus had far more than that, and he left it only because of us, only to do his Father's will. He gave up heaven for a time, for his lifetime, which is all we're asked to do. We're asked to give up things for our lifetime on earth. Sometimes it's easy to think, well, yeah, Jesus knew that he was going to die and go right back to heaven and be glorified again. We know that too. [00:15:37] We know that if we give our lives up on earth, when we die, we go to heaven and we are with the Father. We know the same thing that Jesus knew, and yet it's so hard for us to give up our lives. We think of our lives as being all there is to it. We don't think about eternity, the scale of our life compared to eternity. He came to earth to save us, a bunch of lowly humans who had turned our backs on Him And decided we knew better than He did what would make us happy [00:16:09] God told us what would make us happy Following Him, obeying Him We're going to look at that a little bit But we decided we knew better and He came to redeem us for that He let the humans who He came to save hang Him on the cross to die. God the Son coming to earth for humans, lower than the angels. Think about that. He did not redeem the angels. When Lucifer fell, when the angels fell with him, the demons, [00:16:41] God did not offer them, that we know of at least, God did not offer them a plan of redemption. When they fell, they made that choice and that was it. They were lost forever. However, he chose to come and redeem us and we are lower than the angels. He allowed them to capture him, spit on him, and mock him. At any one time when they were doing that, at any time, he could have called, well he didn't need to call angels, but he did say, I could call twelve legions of angels to be delivered from this. [00:17:17] One angel would have done just fine. Jesus had all that power and yet he chose to submit not just to the cross, he submitted to the Father's will. He was doing this for us out of obedience to the Father. And through it all he still loved us and never turned away from the task his Father gave him to do. And now what about you? Or what about me? [00:17:48] What does God have in store for you? What do you think of when you think of giving your heart to God? Do you see a lot of sacrifice? A lot of God might ask me to do this or do that, give up something I have now that I really hold dear to me. Are you afraid of what God might ask you to do? Can He ask you to do anything that would be harder to do than what He asked His own Son to do in order to save you? [00:18:24] When we think about it, that Jesus went to the cross out of obedience and submission to the Father, it's just anything that we might be asked to do pales in comparison. Let's say that we're asked to go to a foreign country and live in poverty. We're leaving America to go to China. God left heaven to come to earth. Jesus left heaven to come to earth. What are you willing to do for God when He asks? [00:18:58] What does He offer you if you obey? This verse has become really, I just love this verse. John 4, 23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. We have the promise that if we love God and we obey God, we will have our abode with Jesus and the Father. They will come and live with us. [00:19:31] Let's take a minute to think about what am I going to do with my life. Am I going to be thankful for what God has done for me? Or am I going to be one of those who spit in His face and mocked Him when He was crucified? God loves you. He wants you to come to Him. and give your life to Him so He can heal you. [00:20:05] Won't you come to Him today? In 2 Timothy 4.7 Paul says, I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Is that your testimony? If you were at the end of your life today, could you say, I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Or would you have to say, I was a slacker. I did not finish my course. I did not keep the faith. I did not live my life to the hilt for Christ. [00:20:37] Christ died for you. Will you live for Him? That's a phrase we've probably all heard before, but think about it. Christ died for us out of obedience to the Father. Will you live for Him out of obedience to the Father? Father, I want to be specific about who I'm talking to. I'm not talking to someone that is doing their very best for the Lord and we all fail. We all know that I think. We all fail. None of us is perfect in always doing the right thing every time. [00:21:17] What I want to think about is, in this next section here, is deliberately disobeying God. Not being willing to truly let God transform my mind. And there again, I think that is a key thought. Something else that I've come to realize lately is that we do not transform ourselves. [00:21:49] We ask God to transform our minds. When that worm turns into a butterfly, that is a big improvement in that worm's life. But if nothing the worm did, when a tadpole turns into a frog, all of a sudden he has a lot more mobility. He improved his situation, but it wasn't anything he did. God transformed those animals. We cannot simply take and transform our minds. [00:22:20] We need to be, it is up to us to be willing to allow God, to ask God to do that, but it is not up to us to transform our lives. We need to be transformed by God. What is keeping you from giving in to Christ? Can there be any doubt in your mind that He loves you and only wants what is best for you? I know it's easy to think in the back of your mind, if I really, really give my all to God, He's going to ask me to do something that I don't want to do. [00:22:54] John 3, 14-21. Let's turn to that. John chapter 3. John 3.14-21 And notice whether God wants us to [00:23:27] What God wants to do for us Whether or not He's trustworthy Verse 14, John 3, 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. [00:24:02] He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is a condemnation. Think about what we're doing here. Which choice are we going to make? That light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light. Neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. [00:24:45] He gave the very best that he had, and yet some will still say, I don't trust him enough to give him all of me. I still have reservations about what God might want from me. God wants our joy to be full. 1 John 1.4 And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. [00:25:16] John 15.11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. John 16.24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name. Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. Three times Jesus said, We want your joy to be full. My purpose in asking you to follow me is that your joy may be full. [00:25:52] Romans 12, 1-3 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye 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 ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith. [00:26:30] We need to have a transformed mind. And in order for that to happen, first of all, we need to present our bodies a living sacrifice. Are you willing to be a living sacrifice? And at the end of the first verse it says, which is your reasonable service. If we can get our minds wrapped around that phrase. Jesus is not asking us to do something way beyond reason. to go wherever that might take us. [00:27:02] He is asking us to do our reasonable service and be not conformed to this world. Going back to the idea of cosmos, the world is trying to pull us down, to pull us from the skies, as the song said. The world is against Christ, against God. And yet we want to try to fit in. We want to be conformed to the world. Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. [00:27:33] And I think that's the whole key. We need to have our minds transformed or renewed. We need to give our mind to Christ and let Christ take and transform our minds, renew our minds, and give us a new appetite, a different way of looking at the world. Verse 3, For I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. I used to think just simply of that as pride. I think that can't apply to pride. [00:28:04] But I think also it can apply to entitlement. I deserve this. Whatever I want to do, maybe I've got goals and ambitions. That's something I deserve. God will understand if I want to pursue that. We are to give our bodies as a living sacrifice in reasonable service. I think if we realize what God has done for us, if we don't think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think, [00:28:37] it will make it much easier to submit to that and to give ourselves as a sacrifice. Be not conformed, be transformed, and not think too highly of ourselves. We all know this verse. Most of us, probably nearly all of us, have at least heard it. And yet we think that somehow the world is something to try to blend in with. Why? Why? It can only be explained as having too much of the world in us. We have not come to the place where we truly believe that friendship with the world is enmity with God. Do you really believe that? In order for me to be friends with the world, I need to be enemies with God. [00:29:31] If we want to have the world think highly of us, we are going to have to be an enemy of God. James 4. Let's go to James 4. I'd like to read that chapter. There's a lot in this chapter. I want to think about it that we are being asked to be different. We are being asked to worry about what God thinks about us, not what the world thinks about us, and have our minds transformed to the image of God. [00:30:16] James chapter 4 From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts, that war in your members? Ye lust and have not. Ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. Ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. [00:30:49] Do you think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil. Resist cosmos. And he will flee from you. Draw an eye to God, and he will draw an eye to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded Be afflicted and mourn and weep Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness [00:31:22] Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He shall lift you up Speak not evil one of another, brethren He that speaketh evil of his brother and judges his brother Speaketh evil of the law and judges the law But if thou judgest the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge There is one lawyer who is able to save and to destroy. Who art thou that judgest another? Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy, and sell, and get gain. Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? [00:31:56] It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this or that. But now ye rejoice, and ye are boasting. All such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. In the first part of the chapter, he talks about friendship with the world. The last part of verse 4, [00:32:29] Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. and then verse 5 You think that the scripture saith in vain The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy It is only natural for us to rebel against God The spirit that is in us lusteth to envy We do not, our natural man does not long for the things of God And then in the last 17 there Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not [00:33:00] To him it is sin How serious are we about blending in with the world? How important is it to us to blend in with the world? To the lady who is embarrassed to wear a covering, are you more embarrassed to not fit in with the crowd at Walmart? [00:33:33] than you are to face Jesus Christ Himself and be asked to explain your dismissal of His Word? I died for you, was what I asked of you so hard. To the young lady who is willing to expose her body, wear tight clothes, to fit in, to be in style, who do you really want to be like? To the man who has lived a double standard all his life, [00:34:11] do you really think that it is worse to come out in the open with your sin and be exposed now, embarrassing your family in the process, than it will be to have them looking across the aisle on Judgment Day and wondering why you're not going to be in heaven with them? What about the people you lead astray in the process of clinging to sin? What is there about a false front that is so attractive to us? [00:34:45] People, this is serious business. If you're here and just playing church in order to make others think well of you, you're in a very dangerous game. This isn't something funny or something to do for now and I'll get serious later. The longer you wait, the less likely it becomes that you will ever make the decision to follow Christ with your whole heart. Or that you will even still realize that you have a need. [00:35:22] There are probably some here today who cannot recall ever making that decision to follow Jesus with all their heart. But figure, as long as they've been in the church, they must be a Christian by now. Going to church all your life will not save you. You need to be born again and you need to give your heart to Jesus. They figure that by now God's been able to get used to their shortcomings and has just decided to accept them the way they are. God cannot accept sin. [00:35:57] Hypocrisy is the silliest thing we could hang on to. It will do us absolutely no good. The thing I would ask you to do is to be willing to change and allow God. Here again, allow God. Maybe you say, well, I can't change. I've tried to change. I just can't do it. It's not us. It's God that changes our hearts. Allow God to transform you into a genuine image of Himself. [00:36:33] Allow God to take away that desire to be like the world. Ask God, give me a desire to fit your mold, to be like you would have us to be. Lord, take my appetite, my desires, my will. Make them like yours. Not determining I am going to do better, But determining to be willing, to never tell God no, to ask God to change us You can deceive yourself If I'm not willing to change, then why not just admit it and go live it up while it lasts [00:37:10] I'm no more saved going to church than if I'm not At least then I would know that I need the Savior instead of deceiving myself 1 John 1.8 says, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. We can deceive ourselves. The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his deception. The one who lies with sincerity. [00:37:42] No man for any considerable period can wear one face to himself and another to the multitudes without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true. You can only be a hypocrite so long before you start to wonder if you are maybe, maybe I am a Christian. I've been in the church for so long, maybe I have enough good in me to outweigh the bad. No one is dressed shabbier than he who uses his religion as a cloak. [00:38:19] If you are not living a victorious life in Christ, if you are not living a dedicated life, I would beg of you, don't put it off. Well, don't wait until a more convenient season. Sin will never enter there. We cannot have a few things where we refuse to give in and live our lives mostly for God. We need to be sold out for God. [00:38:58] God, I ask you to stand. I'd like you to bow your heads. And if you're here this morning and you don't know that you're born again, if you wonder, have I just been in church all my life and Am I living a double standard? Maybe you know you've been living a double standard. [00:39:34] I'm going to ask you to come forward. We'll pray with you. We'll help you. Give your heart to the Lord. And ask Him to change our appetite. If that's your desire, I would just ask you to come forward and we'll pray with you. [00:40:08] Let's pray. Lord, I thank you for this day. I thank you, Lord, for your love, your sacrifice, your willingness to be obedient to us. Lord, I pray that you would help us as we look at that, as we see what you've done for us, that it would be real to us. [00:40:40] And that we would just have a driving desire to love you, to fulfill your will in our lives, to live close to you. Lord, I pray for any that are here this morning that you've spoken to. Maybe were afraid to come forward. I just pray that you'd give them a real strength. [00:41:12] They wouldn't have a fear of man, but they would just realize the importance of being right with you. Thank you for caring. Thank you for loving us. I pray now, Lord, for the meal that's been prepared. I pray that you would bless this food, bless our fellowship. Help us, Lord, to use this time to your honor and your glory. and that we would just live our lives for you [00:41:43] and be growing in you each day. We pray also for the singing. I just pray that you would bless this afternoon and it could be a real blessing to those there at the home. Thank you, Lord, for caring. We love you. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.