A Living Sacrifice

Providence Baptist Church

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Turning your Bibles this morning to Romans chapter 12. I do want to apologize this morning for my voice and the coughing fits that you will probably hear.

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Late this week, I had no voice. And so I just praise God that I have the voice that I do today, because I am excited to get to preach this morning.

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I'm thankful for the opportunity that both the church and Brother Quatro have given me to preach this morning and tonight.

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Romans chapter 12, verses one and two. When you find

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Romans chapter 12, if you would please stand as we honor the reading of God's holy word.

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Romans chapter 12, beginning verse one. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

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Do 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.

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Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father God, do thank you for this opportunity to preach your word.

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I pray that you would be glorified in all that we do this morning. Father, I stand here as a weak man with a weak mind, a weak body and a weak voice.

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But I take comfort in knowing that you use weak men. And so,

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Father God, I pray that through all my inadequacies, all my shortcomings, physically, mentally, spiritually, that you would,

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Father God, just use me as an instrument this morning, that I'll be nothing more than a mouthpiece for you to use for your word to be proclaimed, that your word would be preached boldly, humbly, and with love.

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Lord, we know that your word does not return void, and so I pray that, Lord, you would go before your word and that each heart would be open to receive it, that we would grow in our knowledge and our wisdom of you,

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Father God, that our love for you would be increased, that our desire for you and our desire for your word, our desire to be a part of this local church would all increase.

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Lord God, we are so thankful for your many blessings. We're thankful most of all for your son.

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Without him, our salvation would not be possible. We love you and we praise you, in Christ's name, amen.

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This morning's sermon, it'll be, as far as the way it's laid out, it'll be laid out a little bit different than probably what you're used to or what

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I'm even used to in preaching. I don't have a set number of points this morning.

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We're just gonna work through these two scriptures in a phrase -by -phrase or even a word -by -word fashion.

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We're just gonna start at the beginning of verse number one and we're gonna work towards the end of verse number two.

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You could preach probably, I was trying to count, you could probably preach six sermons on just these two scriptures, maybe more than that.

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I'm not gonna try to preach all six this morning, but we are going to work our way through these two scriptures pretty quickly.

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He starts, Paul starts, it's not the first word, but I appeal to you therefore, brothers.

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And so when Paul is, who Paul is addressing here when he says brothers, he's meaning

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Christians. He is meaning believers. Paul is addressing believers and he says brothers.

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Matthew Henry says this is a, or in the King James, it would be brethren,

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I beseech you therefore, brethren. It is a term of affection and concern.

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And these are instructions for the Christian. And I wanna start this sermon by saying, it matters to God how a

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Christian lives their life. We must live in a manner that is pleasing to God.

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It is not how I think it is right to live or how you think it is right to live.

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Those don't matter in the least. All that matters is how God says is the right way to live, period.

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That is what matters. And so let's keep that in mind as we go through this script passage of scripture this morning in both the

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KJV and the LSB. And I know Alex will pass out that I just compared the

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KJV and the LSB, but in both the KJV and the LSB, the first word in this text, it's the fourth word in the

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ESV. No, fifth word. Fifth word in the ESV. But in both the

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LSB and the KJV, the first word of this text is the word therefore.

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This word is often overlooked in this text. Sometimes people just go straight into the rest of the text, the rest of what's being said here.

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And it's often overlooked, but I don't wanna overlook therefore this morning.

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It's a very important word that is used here. It is a conjunctive adverb that connects two clauses.

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The clauses that are being connected here in Romans 12 are the previous 11 chapters of Romans and what

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Paul is about to say in Romans 12. He's connecting Romans one through 11 to what he is about to say in Romans 12.

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The instructions in the previous chapters are now being linked to the action of these two verses.

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As Steve Lawson puts it, it is linking doctrine to duty, beliefs to behavior, and mind connected to heart, hands, feet, and body.

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There has to be a bridge between what you know and your actions, a bridge between the word of God and how you live as a

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Christian. They're not two separate entities, but rather they exist together to make up the whole.

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The heart is no good without a mind and vice versa. And so it's linking, it's linking doctrine, and it's linking what we know to our actions.

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Going back to the previous three words of the text, he says, I appeal to you. So we've got therefore, and then he goes,

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I appeal to you therefore. The therefore is linking the doctrine to the duty.

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And now we have, I appeal to you. Or in other words, I strongly urge you.

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He is seeking to motivate them to what he is about to speak of. Paul here is trying to light a fire under them to motivate them to live for the glory of God.

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And he does this by presenting so much doctrine in the previous 11 chapters.

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If you've read Romans, a lot like Ephesians that we're going through right now, if you've read

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Romans, the first 11 chapters of Romans are just chock full of doctrine.

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It's one of the most doctrinally deep passages from Romans 1 to Romans 11 that we find throughout the entire whole of scripture.

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And so he, excuse me, he does this after presenting so much doctrine in the previous 11 chapters.

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Doctrine is so important and I cannot express how important it is to know what you believe.

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That's why we've been studying what we have been over the last two months in Sunday school.

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If you've been here, we've been discussing why it's so important that you know doctrine. Why it's so important that you have a robust doctrine and understanding of scripture.

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It's so important. You must know the truth for a multitude of reasons that we don't have time to get into today.

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Come to Sunday school. That's what we've been getting into in Sunday school is why it is so important that you know what you believe.

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Why doctrine is so important. You cannot make it as a Christian without a foundation in the word, knowing what you believe.

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You must know as a Christian, you must know what you believe and why you believe it, how through the study of scripture.

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And if you have that, many of you may be sitting out there and you say, I know what I believe and I know why

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I believe it. I study scripture regularly. That is wonderful. If you have that, that is so wonderful, but you cannot just stop there with good doctrine.

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You can have the best and most biblical doctrine of anyone in the world. And that's great.

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But if it is not driving you to action, you're not acting upon that doctrine, then it is a waste.

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Too often we believe that just showing up or knowing scripture checks the box for Christianity.

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I read my, I did my Bible reading today. I'm going to check the box, but a Christian should be driven to action by their knowledge of God and by their love of God.

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And so he's urging them. He's saying, I strongly urge you. Therefore, I appeal to you.

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I strongly urge you. So he's saying, based on what you have learned, based on this doctrine that I've presented in the first 11 chapters of Romans, based on what you know, based on what you have been taught, based on what you have learned of God and what you've learned of Christ, based upon that knowledge,

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I'm urging you by what? I'm urging you by the mercies of God.

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Paul urges with a phrase by the mercies of God. Gil says, likewise, the relation to God, being of his family, having one and the same father, and so under obligation to regard his will, honor and reverence him.

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Moreover, these things are moved not in an imperious way, in an authoritative manner, but by way of entreaty,

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I beseech you as an ambassador of Christ, as though in his stead, nor are they enforced by terrors, threats and menaces, but by the mercies of God.

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So based on what he has taught them, based on their doctrine, based on their sound doctrine, based on what they believe, he is urging them by the mercies of God.

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What are those mercies? What are them, what mercies is he talking about when he says, I appeal to you, therefore brothers, by the mercies of God.

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What are those mercies? You could make a statement of, well, those mercies, that's referring to what

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God brought you from to what he's brought you to. The best,

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I think, scripture turned to Ephesians. I think we all know where Ephesians is.

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Turn to Ephesians chapter one. And I do want to say that we make that joke a lot about knowing where Ephesians are.

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We ought to thank the Lord for a pastor who has so diligently worked through the book of Ephesians and took so much care as he has went through it.

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Thank God for that. Ephesians chapter one, verses one through nine. So what mercies? He said, I strongly urge you,

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I appeal to you. Therefore brothers, I appeal to you Christians, I appeal to you believers, based on the doctrine that I've told you by the mercies of God.

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What are those mercies? Ephesians one, one through nine. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from God our

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Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

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Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

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In love, he predestined us for the adoption to himself and sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace in which he has blessed us in the beloved.

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In him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ.

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Turn to Ephesians two. Ephesians two, verse one. And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air and the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we had our conversations in times past in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath.

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We were by nature the children of wrath. We were dead in our trespasses and sins.

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But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ.

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By grace you're saved, hath raised us up together and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

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For by grace you have been saved through faith and not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.

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For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which

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God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. What mercies, what mercies is he urging them by in Romans 12 when he says,

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I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God. What mercies? We've just read of those mercies here in Ephesians 1 and 2.

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By those mercies, he's urging them, he's appealing to them by those mercies.

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While we were wretched, the children of wrath, Christ gave himself for us.

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Isaiah 53, four through six, surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

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Yet we esteemed him stricken, bitten by God and afflicted, but he was pierced, not for his transgressions.

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No, he was pierced for, our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.

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And upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds, we are healed.

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All we like sheep had gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way.

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And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

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He paid our debt. He calls, he regenerates, he sanctifies, he provides the believer with a radically changed life.

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The children of wrath, as Gunner quoted, Paris Reid had this morning, the monsters of iniquity that we all were.

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He changed our life. But God who is rich in mercy, what more motivation do we need to live for him?

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If you need more motivation than that to serve and follow him, then you are lost.

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If you need things like wealth, health, heaven, and so on to follow

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Christ, then something is very wrong. Paul Washer said, if Jesus is not enough to motivate you to live godly, then you don't know

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Jesus. So what does he appeal to him by? What is he urging them to listen to what he's about to say?

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What is he urging them by? By the mercies of God. Thank the

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Lord for his mercy and his grace. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice.

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To present your bodies a living sacrifice. What is he talking about? To present your bodies a living sacrifice.

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This is both similar and different to the Old Testament sacrifice. The laying of a slain sacrifice upon the altar in the

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Old Testament was both prescribed and ordained by God.

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These sacrifices were done in a specific way in which

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God had instructed. In the Bible reading that the church is doing,

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I don't know exactly where you're at, but you've either already just previously covered a lot of this or you're still in the midst of that.

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The sacrifices in the Old Testament, they were done in a specific way in which God had instructed.

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If it was done any other way than how God had instructed, then it was displeasing and unacceptable to God.

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No self -made product was acceptable. What can we take from that?

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The way that we present ourselves to him and the way that we present ourselves in general and the way that we worship him must be done in the way that is instructed by God.

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Any other way than what is instructed in the Word is unacceptable and displeasing to him.

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When we, as Christians, when we as churches make

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Christianity about us rather than Christ and we try to mold and fit it to us and our desires rather than being molded to fit

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Christ, then it is unacceptable to God. So Paul says,

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I urge you therefore, or I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice.

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The sacrifice that Paul is referring to here is not a sacrifice of a dead animal, but of our living human lives.

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You cannot separate your physical body from your soul. You present everything.

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When he says that present your bodies as a living sacrifice, he is meaning everything. You present everything.

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Our lives are placed on an altar and totally given to God. When they are presented, our hands come off and they are placed upon the altar of God to use however he sees fit.

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We don't decide how, when, and where God uses us. The sacrifice, when the sacrifice is placed on the altar, the sacrifice gives up control to the one who is being sacrificed to.

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The word bodies, he says to present your bodies as a living sacrifice.

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The word bodies here doesn't just represent our physical body. It does represent our physical bodies, but not just our physical bodies.

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The word bodies here represents our entire being inside and outside.

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Our physical body, our mind, our emotions, and our will completely yielded to God.

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You believe what God says in his word and you are led by the spirit. What you look at, what you listen to, how you dress, how you react, how you respond, how you treat others, everything in your life completely given to God.

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Your worldview comes from God. Where you go comes from God. You are fully presented to God as a living sacrifice.

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To present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

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A living and a holy sacrifice. A living sacrifice alive and placed on the altar.

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Holy. Definition of holy is to be set apart. Set apart for special use.

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Living for eternal and not temporal things. Part of that separation, part of that being set apart is a pure sacrifice.

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A sacrifice unstained by the pollution of the world. A sacrifice unstained by the pollution of the world doesn't describe anyone in here.

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That sacrifice was Christ. Christ was the perfect and the holy and the pure and the spotless perfect sacrifice and believers have been washed by his blood.

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They have been washed by the blood of Christ. And Paul is calling them to pursue holiness and to pursue godliness in our lives.

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Leviticus 11, 44 says be holy for I am holy. A living and a holy sacrifice.

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What does it say? Holy and acceptable to God. So it's a living sacrifice.

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It is a holy sacrifice acceptable unto

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God. Meaning a life presented that is acceptable to God.

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Anything less than a living and holy sacrifice is unacceptable to God.

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This is not legalism. We say well that's legalism. Legalism is just following a bunch of rules of religion to make ourselves righteous.

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It's self righteousness. As Christians we are expected to follow commands given in scripture by God due to the internal love of God that we possess.

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There was a gift given by the Holy Spirit. 2 Corinthians 5, 9.

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So whether we are home or away, we aim, we make it our aim to please God.

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As Christians we are to desire to live a life that is pleasing to God.

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Romans 14, 18. This is taken out of the

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LSB. For he who in this way serves

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Christ is pleasing to God and approved by men. There is a specific way to serve and live for the

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Lord that is acceptable to God. We should long to please him with our lives.

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Not motivated by guilt but rather by grace. We are motivated to live a life that is pleasing to God.

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By what? By those mercies of God. Ephesians 5, 10.

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And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. As Christians we desire to present ourselves as pleasing to the

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Lord which is our spiritual worship. King James Version says reasonable service.

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Which is your reasonable service. ESV, which is your spiritual worship. Your rational, logical service and worship.

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Meaning that it is irrational and unreasonable to not present your bodies as a living and a holy sacrifice unto

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God. Matthew Henry states, our God must be served in the spirit and with understanding.

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A lifestyle of service and worship to God. Not just an hour on Sunday morning but a complete and total life devoted to the service and worship of God.

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Which is your spiritual worship. So read verse one again. I appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship.

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Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

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Verse two starts talking about transformation and to be not conformed.

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It's not enough to just know the information. To know doctrine.

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To know what we believe. But we must also love and be changed by it.

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When pastor writes it is not enough to master the word. The word must master us.

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You know we have a term, sanctification. We talk about a lot.

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Sometimes people put on in front of that progressive sanctification.

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What does that mean? It means progressively becoming less of what we were and more and more like Christ in every aspect of our lives by the working of the

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Holy Spirit. Transformation is key, crucial and required in a

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Christian life. Those who are regenerated. If you've been saved, you say

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I've been saved. I've been born again. Those regenerated by the Holy Spirit will be changed and sanctified by the

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Holy Spirit. There's not one group of Christians that are really holy and are sanctified once they are saved.

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And then another group of Christians that maybe they just don't want to devote as much time to Christ who don't live a life that is progressively sanctified by the

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Holy Spirit. The Bible speaks nothing of this. The Bible does tell that everyone, everyone who is of Christ, everyone who puts their trust and their faith in Christ will be changed.

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You will be transformed. You will be sanctified. It says do not be conformed to this world.

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Be not conformed. What does it mean? What does that word mean to be not conformed?

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What does conformed mean? It means to be protected from the world's value system.

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Protected from the world, but not secluded from the world. Steve Lawson puts it like this, insulated from the world, but not isolated from the world.

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Or as you've probably heard it, in the world, but not of the world. We are a lot of the means by which

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God uses for spreading the gospel to a lost and dying world. We must live in this world.

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We must go out into the world, into a lost and a dying world and proclaim the gospel.

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That the gospel, the proclamation of the gospel is the means by which God chose to bring about the salvation of sinners.

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So we're commanded to go out into the world, into a lost world, an unconverted world and tell them about Christ.

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But we are not to be of that world. We are not to be a joining partner with that world.

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Conformed means, when it says be not conformed, conformed means similar or the same as something.

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The Bible says, do not be conformed or do not be similar or the same as this world's evil.

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The world here is referring to the way that the world operates, the world's thinking, the world's values, the world's agenda, the world's perspective, the world's mindset.

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In our world and too often in the majority of churches, everything revolves around man.

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In our culture today, everything revolves around what is pleasing to me.

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What is pleasing to you? What we can find joy in? What we can find entertainment in?

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In many churches today, that same mindset has crept in where it is about us, it is about the consumer rather than about Christ.

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It revolves around man. Instead of in Romans 11, instead of it being stated as in Romans 11, for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be the glory forever, amen.

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Our world in too many churches today exists by this motto, from man and through man and to man are all things and to man be the glory.

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The world's value system and the way the world operates is at odds with the gospel.

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The word for this is humanism and it's all over many churches in America today.

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1 John 2 .15 says, do not love the world nor the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him.

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Our citizenship is in heaven and not of this world. We are

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American citizens or Canadian citizens, but the one who we answer to, who our allegiance is to above all is

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Christ. The more that the love of and for the father moves into our heart, the more that the love of the world and the things of the world are driven out.

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Love for the things of the world above a love for God is a sure sign of the unconverted.

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1 John 2 .16 -17, for all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the father, but it's from the world and the world is passing away along with its desires.

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But whoever does the will of God abides forever. We enjoy this life.

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We enjoy things of this world. I watched baseball yesterday.

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I enjoyed watching baseball. There are many things that you may enjoy.

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You may enjoy to go hunting. You may enjoy fishing. And that's okay that you enjoy these things.

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We enjoy many things of this life and this world, but we must love

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God above all and He must be our chief satisfaction. Ephesians 2 .2,

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in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air and the spirit that is now at work and the sons of disobedience.

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What's the key phrase there? In which you once walked.

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No longer do we walk according to the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, which is

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Satan. James 4 .4, you adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

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Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

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Too many churches today have sold the gospel and themselves for the things of this world.

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Or as in the same sermon that Gunner quoted from this morning,

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Parrish Readhead, or as he would put it, we've sold the gospel for 10 shekels and a shirt.

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We've sold the gospel for something that is not the gospel. Friendship with the world is hostility towards God.

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You can't be a friend of the world and God at the same time. That is not meaning that you can't have lost friends.

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I have lost friends. I think it's important that we have people out there that we have friends that we interact with that are lost that we can share the gospel with.

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They need somebody to share the gospel with, but we do not love the way of the world.

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We do not love the values of the world. We must go out and tell the world about Jesus.

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We must show them the gospel, but we must. As in, as Elijah said in 1

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Kings 18, 21, and Elijah came near to all the people and said, how long will you go limping between two different opinions?

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If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him.

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And the people did not answer him a word. You cannot follow the way of the world and the way of Christ.

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You must, as believers, we follow Christ. Be not conformed.

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Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed. You can't listen to this.

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I know it's gonna sound weird the way I say it. You can't not conform without being transformed.

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They go hand in hand. You can't not conform without being transformed. If you do not conform to the world, but you have not been transformed by God, then you are a legalist, because there is no relationship with Christ and no supernatural working of God in your life.

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When you are transformed, we do not conform. Why? Because we have been transformed.

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We are radically changed from the inside out into the likeness of Christ. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed.

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How are we transformed? By the renewing of your mind.

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Our mind must have God's thought, beliefs, and convictions and be grounded in Scripture.

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Colossians 3 .2, set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

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Matthew 22 .37, he said to them, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

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Be saturated in the word. It is not enough. We've been covering in Sunday school, what's the objection that we've been tackling lately is that there's a objection to learning doctrine out there in the world today that goes something like this.

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Christianity is a religion of the heart, not the intellect. This Scripture refutes that.

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It says, loving with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. We must be saturated in the word of God.

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Every believer must be saturated and know the word of God. As Paul Washer once said, get alone and know

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God. Every believer should have that desire. I want to get alone and know God.

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I must know God. If I don't know more of God, I will die. You must desire to know more of God.

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That's how the renewal of the mind takes place. John 17 .17 says, you know, we talked about sanctification, sanctify them through thy truth.

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Thy word is truth. We serve a God that transforms.

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He renews your mind to discern what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.

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There isn't, there's too many today that proclaim to be Christians that lack discernment, that lack that discernment.

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Too many in churches today that live like they want to, like the sons of disobedience all week long,

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Monday through Saturday, living and looking just like the world, but then come in here and worship on Sunday and think,

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I've done enough, I've done enough. Do we really think that coming in here and worshiping once a week is all of our spiritual worship, our reasonable service?

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No surrender, no transformation, still conforming to the world. But I came on Sunday and I sang.

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I sang his praises. I raised my hand. Am I not good? I've done my part.

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You can come in here every Sunday and sing. You can lift your hands. You can pray and still be conforming to the world when you walk out of those doors.

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A lot of people just, they want to be part of the show. They want to check a box, but they don't want to know

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God and be transformed by Him. Church has become a production about us and for us instead of desiring glory to be for God.

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Worship on Sunday, but conform every other day. No mind to holiness. Holiness, that is not the life and the way of a

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Christian. You can lift up your hands and praise every

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Sunday. But if your life outside of here looks nothing like obedience to Christ and His word, and you have okayed sin in your life, and you have no desire to be holy, you have no love for God to conform to Scripture, then your worship based upon Scripture is not acceptable to God.

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Paul Washer, I know you all are getting tired of Paul Washer quotes, but how do you know one's spirituality is from God?

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It conforms to what is written. Believer, those that claim to be

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Christians, do you share all the same interests of the world?

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Do you think like the world? Do you desire to be like the world? Do you desire to be like the world instead of being obedient to the word?

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If you claim to have been transformed, but you continually conform to the things of this world, then there's reason for you to be greatly concerned that you might have been deceived.

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I'm not saying you will not be perfect. You will struggle. You will still sin, but there will be a change in your conforming to the world because you have been transformed by something so much greater than anything in this world.

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You have been transformed by something whose worth or by someone whose worth is greater than everything in this universe combined.

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His worth is still infinitely greater. You have been transformed by him.

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It is God who saves. It is God who transformed, and there will be a change in your life.

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No change, no desire for obedience out of a love for God. Then there is reason to be concerned about whether or not you are in the faith.

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Examine yourself to see whether you be in the faith. We are called to holiness and purity by the grace of God.

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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.

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A result of not being conformed to the world and being transformed by the renewing of your mind is that you will be able to discern the will of God.

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It will lead you to the will and the path of God for us to walk. It is a perfect will and path, but it is also a narrow path.

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It is a good will. What does it say? It is a good will, meaning any other path is bad.

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It is an acceptable will. It is well -pleasing to God. It is a perfect will.

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It is complete. It is whole. It is lacking in nothing for the entirety of our

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Christian life. No part, that means everything of our

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Christian life should be lived outside of the will of God.

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Because we are weak, we stray. But we as Christians, may we desire by the grace of God, may we desire to live in the will of God.

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How do you resist being conformed to this world?

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How do we resist being conformed to this world? There must be a greater love and affection for God and Jesus that is so powerful that you would never settle for the things of this world.

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The power of a new and a greater affection that replaces our old affection for the world.

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A love of God that displaces the love of the world.

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This morning, if you've heard these words, as we've went through rather quickly, these two scriptures and you say, you may think

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I'm hopeless. I'm absolutely hopeless. I haven't been transformed.

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I've never been transformed. I haven't been made new. I'm a sinner and a great one at that.

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Friend, there is grace. There is grace, wonderful and precious grace.

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And I urge you to repent and believe upon the gospel.

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Repent of your sins, turn from them and place your faith and your trust in Christ. Christian, you may be sitting there and you may be thinking,

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I've conformed to the world. In my life, there are areas where I have conformed to the world.

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I have worldly things in my life that should not be there. My affections have been on the world rather than Christ.

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Christian, there is grace. Repent and turn to Christ.

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Let us go to the Lord in prayer. Father God, we are so thankful once again that we can come and that we can gather here as a body of believers and worship you.

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Lord, and we're so thankful for your grace and your mercy that you offer to sinners who deserve your wrath.

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Lord, we all deserve your wrath. Lord, Father, our sentence was that of death and that's what we deserve.

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But you sent your Son, you're rich in mercy and grace. And you sent your Son who lived, who was that perfect, that spotless sacrifice, who lived the life that we could not live and was the propitiation, the wrath -satisfying sacrifice for our sins.

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I pray, Father, that there are those in here that they haven't been transformed. They haven't been born again.

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They haven't trusted in you. Pray, Father, by the drawing and working of your

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Holy Spirit, that they would be regenerated, that they would repent, that they would put their trust and their faith in you.

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Lord, if there are Christians in here who have conformed at home or outside of here or even within these four walls who have conformed to the ways of the world,

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Lord, I pray that you would convict these, that they would, Lord, turn from these, that they would repent and continue to trust you.

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Lord God, we are not a perfect people. We are weak, but you are perfect and you are almighty.