Basic Instructions

Well, it should not be any surprise to you by now that the IRS is no longer sending out this wonderful friendly book of instructions on how to do your taxes. Aren't you glad? If you do your taxes like me, you found this booklet of instructions to be a constant source of confusion and frustration. Endless agony, pouring over details that only a lawyer could understand. Well, I'm glad they're not sending that out any longer. I can do my taxes anyway I want to now. Anybody tell me how to do them. So I'm glad. God has given us an instruction book. It is the Bible. Some of you have probably heard this little play on the letters of the word Bible, the acronym, possibly standing for basic instructions before leaving earth. Certainly God's book, the Bible is basic instruction for us. But at first glance, when you pick up your Bible, it would be very easy to think, wow, this is like the IRS instructions. There's a lot of stuff here and you start reading a Genesis and by the time you get the Leviticus, you're thinking, no way, I can't do all of this, I can't live this. What in the world is this talking about anyway? And so many people give up on God's book of instructions, but there are a few places in God's book of instructions in his word, the Bible, where we are given basic instructions. I mean, these are like summary statements. These are like, okay, here it is. Crystal clear. Here is what I expect of you. God did that for Israel, for instance, in Deuteronomy chapter 6. He said, here, oh Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and strength. I'm impressing these commandments on you today to obey you're to impress them on your children. There, that's it, that's it. That's what I expect of you. He would say through the prophet Micah to a nation that was turning from him. What is it that God requires of you? He has shown you what is good to act justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Three things, that's it. Summary statement of what God expects, basic instructions. Jesus, when he was asked to go through the whole Old Testament law, pick out the biggest commandments that I'll summarize them all. Two basic principles, Matthew 22. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. Basic, basic instructions. The passage we're in this morning, that we've we come to in the book of Romans is one of those basic instruction passages. Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. Many of you have committed these verses to memory. You're familiar with them. They are basic instructions. In fact, they introduce, they sort, kind of serve as an introduction to a new section of the book of Romans, the last section of the book of Romans. We have seen already in our traveling through this great book that Paul talks about the righteousness of God and he's described God's righteousness is needed by us because of our sin, chapters 1 through 3. God's righteousness is given to us by faith in Christ. We are declared righteous, justified chapters 3 through 5. God's righteousness then is worked out and growing in us through sanctification chapter 6 through 8. And we've seen that God's righteousness is rejected by the nation of Israel, but God still has a plan for his people Israel. In his sovereignty, he still has a plan for them, chapters 9 through 11. And so in all of this, we've seen the outworking plan of God's righteous gift to us of salvation. Now Paul says, I'm going to turn a corner and he says in verse 1, therefore I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy and light of what we've talked about, this is the way you are to live. And so we enter the last section of the book of Romans, which is righteousness, practiced. How to practice, how to live out that righteous lifestyle which God is growing now in us as his children. And we live that out. How do we practice righteousness in our daily lives? What Paul does here in these two verses is he says, okay, I'm going to give you the basics first and then we'll flesh it out. We'll put meat on the bones. And I'll tell you a little bit more about how to live righteously. But first of all, you've got to understand their free basic principles. This is what God expects of every Christian. And as God gives us these basic instructions, they can be summarized in three very simple words. This is really basic. This is foundational. You will not be able to do anything else in chapters 12 through 16 if you don't get these three basic instructions first. The first one has to do with dedication, dedication. Look at chapter 12, verse one. Paul says, therefore I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. Now these these instructions for us are so basic. They are so compelling. They are so clear that they just jump out of us. But every word is important. I want us to understand what Paul's talking about with this word dedication with what it means to be dedicated to Christ as one of his followers is one of his children. What does it mean to be dedicated to Christ? Paul says, therefore because of everything we've seen thus far, I urge you, interesting word. It's a word that's actually used for the Holy Spirit in John 16. He is our counselor, our comforter. Paul is coming alongside to counsel, to comfort, to urge, to encourage, to exhort, to challenge. He's like a coach who is saying sometimes you need to be really challenged. Sometimes you need to be encouraged. I'm putting all of that into this passage. I'm putting all of that into this instruction. I'm urging you brothers, generic term for brothers and sisters, all of those who are in the family of God, all of those who know Christ, these instructions can only be followed by believers. But what is it? What is the basis of this dedication? What is the basis of our dedication? On what basis? Why should we be dedicated to Christ as believers? He says, I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy. Because of God's mercy, I urge you to give this all-out dedication to Christ, which he will describe in a moment as a living sacrifice. But it's based on the mercies of God. Now, as we wrapped up chapter 11, we saw that Paul used the word mercy four times in three verses. And so the immediate context is that God's mercy extended to all people, salvation. But really Paul's talking about all of the mercies I've described in the first 11 chapters. Because of all the glorious things we have seen that God has done for us, all that Christ has done for us, that he saw us in our need as sinners, that he provided his son Jesus to die for us, so that we could then, through faith in him, be declared righteous, be justified, so that God's spirit would then dwell in us and give us eternal security that we would never be taken out of the Father's hand. But he would begin to grow his righteousness in us, all that God has done for us, all that Christ has made possible for us. That's the basis on which he calls for this radical, all-out, complete dedication to Christ. And what Paul is saying is that the greater our comprehension of what God has done for us in Christ, the more we will be gripped by the sense of the need to give everything back to him, to give ourselves totally, no reservations, all-out, total surrender commitment, dedication to him. That's what the hymn writer meant, Isaac Watts, when a few hundred years ago he wrote that great song, when I surveyed the wondrous cross, and he talks about Jesus giving himself as a sacrifice for us on the cross, see from his head, his hands, his wounds, blood froze freely down. He's talking about that sacrifice of Christ for us, but in the last verse of that song he says this, we're the whole realm of nature, mine, that we're an offering far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. Love so amazing, love that Jesus poured out for us on the cross, such an amazing love, so divine, something that God could do. That demands an all-out response of dedication from me. There's nothing to be held back, I am to give everything to him based on his mercies to me. If there is anything you think God calls upon us to do that is too great for us, just remember his mercies, just remember what he's done for you, just remember the price he paid for your salvation. It required an all-out sacrifice of himself, and so he's calling for an all-out dedication of us, but let's take a look at what that means. Paul describes the form of our dedication. Word for word, he lays out for us what kind of dedication, all-out surrender and commitment Christ is calling for. He says, therefore, our urge your brothers in view of God's mercy to offer, first of all, this is a willing dedication to offer. In other words, we present, we offer something willingly to Christ ourselves. This is not like Old Testament sacrifices, which he will compare us to in a moment. It's not like Old Testament sacrifices, ignorant dumb animals that are led unknowingly to the place of slaughter. They don't understand what's going on. They can't grasp what's happening to them. They are not willingly offering themselves, but we are called upon to present, to offer, to willingly give ourselves as a living sacrifice to Christ, all-out total, on the author of sacrifice for him. And it's willing, it's something we choose to do. We know going into it, what's happening, and we willingly give our lives to Christ. That's what he's calling for. This is not something you're dragged into. This is not a hood placed over your head, and you're taken, you know, not where. This is something you do with eyes wide open, you know what's happening, and you offer yourselves. God will never force you to do this. He will never force you to be saved. He gives you the responsibility of making a choice to trust the Lord Jesus as your Savior. He will never force you to follow Him, to serve Him, to love Him with all your heart, to dedicate yourself holy to Him. He'll never force you to do that. What Paul is doing here is making the case for why we should do this, but the choice is left up to you. You've got to offer, you've got to willingly present yourself to Christ in an all-out surrender to Him. So it's a willing dedication. Secondly, notice it is a bodily dedication. He says to offer your bodies as living sacrifices. This is something we do with our bodies. This is not the person who says, well, you know, I'm with you in spirit. No, you're not. Nobody can be here in spirit. The only way we experience life is through our bodies. That's the way we interact with our world. That's the way God calls upon us to serve Him, to live for Him. The only way you can do anything in this life is through the human body God has given you. And so Paul's talked about that already in this book about this kind of sacrifice, this kind of lifestyle is one that is through the body that God has given us. Back in chapter 6, you remember it. Chapter 6 in verse 13, you might want to flip back there. Chapter 6 in verse 13, Paul says, do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God. You see the similarity in terminology there with Romans 12, offer yourselves to God. Offer your bodies as living sacrifices to God. Now he describes in chapter 6 and verse 13 what it means to offer yourself to God. He says, as those who have been brought from death to life and offer the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness. In other words, the body that God has given to me to interact with this world in, I am to offer to Him. I'm to give Him this body. And day by day, moment by moment, I'm just, I'm to say, Lord, this mind is yours. I don't want it to go down paths. I don't want it to entertain thoughts. I don't want it to develop attitudes that are contrary to something that would glorify you. This mind has got to be yours today every moment of this day. Lord, these eyes are yours. I don't want them to behold anything, to engage in the world in a way that would dishonor you. I give my eyes to you. Like Job said, I made a covenant with my eyes. So we've got to use the eyes to glorify God. God, I don't want these ears to entertain anything, to allow anything into my mind that will take me away from you. So I dedicate my ears to you. Lord, I don't want this tongue to say anything that would harm and hurt and corrupt influence people away from you. I want this tongue to be used for your glory today. So my speech is yours. My hands, my feet, the entire person, everything I am, everything you are in your human body is being called upon to be given to Christ in an all-out surrender to Him. It is a bodily dedication. But notice, that's not all. He says it is a living dedication to offer your bodies as living sacrifices. Again, this is not an animal like in the Old Testament that's a sacrifice that's taken and killed and a dead body placed on an altar where the body is now burnt. This is not a dead sacrifice. This is a living sacrifice. The implication is that this sacrifice is a continual one. It is maintained by a continual attitude of commitment and surrender to Christ every moment that you live. You see, it has been often said and rightly so that the problem with a living sacrifice is it keeps crawling off the altar. And that's a problem all of us face. We get up in the morning, we say, Lord, I want to live this day for you, but by 830 we've already blown it. We've said, thoughts, seen, heard, done things that are totally contrary to the will of God. And so we crawl off the altar. What he's saying is a living sacrifice is one that has to continually be placed on the altar. It is a present tense, continual type thing that you are continually offering yourself. It's a lifestyle of offering yourself to Christ moment by moment day by day. It's a living sacrifice, but it is also a sacrificial dedication. The word sacrifice is packed with meaning as well. Again, it calls back to mind the Old Testament sacrifices, the animal that took the place of the worshipper. The animal totally given, devoted, totally burned up in the fires of the author, the burnt offering, totally consumed. Sacrifice communicates the idea of cost. This is not going to be easy. When God calls upon us to dedicate everything we are to Him, that's not the easy road. It's going to mean some sacrifices. It's going to mean some cost. We have to be willing to count that cost and say, this is not the easy way. This is not the way that caters to the flesh. This is not the way that caters to ease. This is discipline. This is hard. This is sacrifice. It's a constant battle as we heard earlier in the song to live in a way that glorifies God. It costs us something. It's a sacrificial dedication. It's a holy dedication. He uses the word holy. We are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices. Holy. The word holy means set apart. It means that we are going to set ourselves apart from what this world designs for us to be. We will be set apart to what God wants us to be. It's dedicated. Holy. Set apart for Him. Then He describes it as being pleasing to God. If you do all of the rest of this, your life will be pleasing to God. This kind of sacrifice, this kind of dedication, is how you please God. You ever find yourself praying, Lord, I want to please you, I want my life to please you. This is it. He's already told you how he wants you to please Him. This is it. And all out total surrender to Him every day of your life, every moment of that day. Pleasing to Him. And then He says very interesting words. He describes what this means. He says this is your spiritual act of worship. If you have the King James, it says this is your reasonable service. The reason for the two differences in the words there and the translation is there are two key words here which can be translated two different ways. So one set of translators is translated at spiritual act of worship. Another has your reasonable service. If I were being asked to translate this and nobody has asked me to do that for anybody. So I guess out of the loop. But if I were to be translating, I would combine the two. I would combine the two. I think the most appropriate way to understand these words is this is your reading. This is your reasonable act of worship. The first word that Paul uses is the Greek word logicost. And I only mentioned that because we get an English word directly from that word logical. The word literally means to understand something, to be informed about something. It deals with the mind. It deals with the reasonable act of life. The meaning of the word is that this is all out. Sacrifice of everything you are for Christ is the most reasonable thing you could do. Anything else is crazy. For you to say, okay, I know Jesus gave himself for me. I know he died on the cross, gave his life for me. He came to this earth, gave up heaven's glories, died for me. I know that. And now I'm going to give him my life and trust him as my savior. But I'm keeping this part of my life to myself. It may be your goals and ambitions. It may be your career. It may be your bank account. It may be your possessions. It may be plans for the future. It may be someone who is close to you in your life. You don't want to give them up. It may be a place, a position, a direction you don't want to give up. And so you're hanging onto that. That's yours. God can have Sunday. God can have Sunday morning. But the rest is mine. Paul saying, that's ludicrous. That's great. That's insanity. In light of what Christ has done for us, the only reasonable response is to give everything back to him to lay it all on the altar. Everything. My future, my goals, my ambitions, my plans, everything I have or hope to be. It's all out there for him to do whatever he wants to do with it. Whatever he chooses, it's on the altar of sacrifice. Anything else, any half-hearted giving of ourselves to the Lord is ridiculous. Paul says that's insanity. The only logical thing to do is give everything to him. So it is reasonable. It is logical. It is an informed understanding, response of what God has done for us. But it is a reasonable act of worship. You see, I think we have to narrow a definition of worship. There is a narrow view of worship. There is a narrow part of worship, which basically is adoration of God through singing and expressing our praise to him. That is worship. Yes, no question. That is worship. But it's only one part of worship. It's only a narrow focus of worship. What Paul's dealing with here is the broader scope of what worship really is. Worship is your lifestyle. Every moment of your day on that altar of sacrifice being lived out for him, that is your logical informed understanding of what is done for you. Act of worship. Worship is a lifestyle. Worship is not just, I'll give God some praise and a little bit of money and some attention on Sunday morning and, woo, woo, that's the week, that's mine. That's not worship. Worship is a lifestyle. Every moment given to him, it's a lifestyle of offering sacrifice, bodily giving ourselves to him. That is worship. And as Chris Tomlin wrote, and we were saying earlier, we were made for that. We were made to worship God. Not just a sing for five minutes. We were made to give our whole lives to him in an offering, an act of worship, a lifestyle of worship. That, my friend, is dedication. Now, what is the power of that? What will happen if we do that? D.L. Moody one time said, the world has yet to see what God can do through a man who is totally committed to him. And he said that, that's saying challenged him for his whole life, his whole adult life of giving himself to Christ. I think probably that still has yet to be seen. Maybe Paul, I don't know, maybe there's some others. I'm sure there are who've come close to it. I haven't come close to it. The world has yet to see what can be done through a person who is totally, unreservedly, constantly on the author. What's the power of that? The power of that focus is absolutely incredible. One of the greatest inventors this country has ever seen, probably the greatest, was Thomas Edison. We know Thomas Edison for discovering the light bulb, and you probably have read some stories about the 10,000 failures in his persistence and not giving up and his dedication to the task. What you may not know is Thomas Edison had 193 patented inventions. I mean, the man was totally consumed with discovering what God had placed in this world and how to make it work for the betterment of humankind. He invented the phonograph. He invented a voting machine. Not so sure what should be thankful about that. But he invented a voting machine. He invented the cement mixer. He invented the storage battery, the dictophone, the duplicating machine. He came close to inventing the radio. And beyond those 1993, which I won't take the time to list all of them, he perfected a number of other inventions that only got so far. The telephone, we think of Alexander Graham Bell, but it was Edison who perfected it and refined it and made it more what we think of 40 years ago. Not today. The motion picture, the electric generator, the typewriter, the electric train. I mean, you could go on and on. That man's whole life was dedicated. You may have heard the story about the time when all of his complex of buildings burned outside of Detroit. And before the fire was out, he was sitting on the ground, drawing up plans for new buildings. And telling his coworkers, I have no idea where the money is coming from. But we're going to rebuild. We're going to do bigger and better. And he did. I mean, the man was an illustration of all out dedication to what he believed he should be doing. If everyone in this room had that same kind of all-out dedication to Jesus Christ, we would split this place wide open. This town would not be able to contain the revival that would take place. The church would arise, and it would be powerful. All-out dedication every moment of every day. That is our reasonable and formed understanding of what God has done for us, lifestyle of worship given back to him, dedication. That's only the first of three key instructions, basic instructions. The second one is separation. And I almost hesitate to use this word because it's so misunderstood. I looked for a better one, but really couldn't find a better one. So, do you think of one? Give it to me later, please. Of course, it would be too late. I don't want to preach this again next week. But separation is the word I've chosen. That word is so misunderstood. Those some people think of separation as, okay, I've got to be isolated from unsafe people. I'm not supposed to have any unsafe friends. I shouldn't go where unsafe people are. That's not separation. Jesus didn't live that way. That's not biblical separation. Some people believe that separation is if you disagree with me on any doctrinal issue, no matter how little it is. I mean, if we disagree on what the little toe of Daniel's image, the beast that he saw, the image that he saw in Daniel chapter 2, what that prophetic significance is of that little toe, you know, one of the tenths. If we disagree on that, I got to separate from you. That's not biblical separation. Some people think separation is a withdrawal from everything of the world. Of course, I shouldn't enjoy any of the things that this world has to offer. Musical style that others may use, we shouldn't use in worship. That's what some people think. Separation is. That's not separation. If we couldn't use any musical style that anybody in the world's ever used, we'd have to give up every one of our hymns, too. You know, because I'd have to give up my Beethoven and Chikoski also. Those guys were pretty pagan. That's not separation. Okay, what are we talking about? What is Paul talking about when he says in verse 2, do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world? Okay, we need to ask ourselves two questions from what should we separate? What is Paul calling on us to separate from? Do not conform any longer? Here it is, to the pattern of this world. We have to understand what he means by the world. That's where the confusion is. One passage, and I've mentioned this a number of times here, so some of you know where I'm headed. One passage that helps me understand this is a passage in 1 John chapter 2 in verse 15-16, where John says, do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father, love for the Father, is not in them. And then in the next verse he describes what he means by world. For everything in the world, okay, he's telling us, this is what I'm talking about by world. Everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, comes not from the Father, but from the world. Now here it is, when John and Paul use the term world in this sense in the Bible, they're not talking about the planet, obviously, they're not talking about the world of people. They're talking about a system, a way of thought, a philosophy of life, a way of looking at life, a way of approaching life that people far from God have, and that basically is under the domination of Satan. 1 John 5.19 says, the whole world lies in the evil one. 2 Corinthians 4.4 calls him the God of this world. It's a world system. It's a system of thought, a way of looking at life. Those who are far from God have a very different way of looking at life than those, at least who are close to Christ, should have. We have a totally different way of looking at what's right, what's wrong, what is authority, what is absolute truth. We have a totally different way of looking at how we should respond to injustice. We have a totally different way of looking at morality in this world, totally different way of looking at things. The world system is a way of thought, a way of approaching life, an outlook, a worldview, whatever world you want to use, a way of looking at life that is based on those three things that John mentioned, first of all the lust of the flesh, the desire to gratify the sinful nature, whatever sinful desires I have, whether it's in the sexual realm, the desire to fulfill that outside the will of God in an immoral fashion, or any other desire of the sinful nature, greed, envy, stealing, lying, anything my sinful nature pops at me, the desire to do that, that's worldliness. That's the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the word lust simply means strong desire. We often think of it in sexual terms, but the Greek word simply means a strong desire for something. The lust of the eyes is a strong desire to obtain whatever our eyes see. It's materialism, it's possessions, it's a philosophy of life that has, as its ambition, get as much as you can get, can it and then sit on the can? That philosophy of life. And that philosophy of life can be held by people who are absolutely poverty-stricken and have nothing. But their goal in life, their ambition, if they could have what they want, they dream about, is to have more stuff. To be able to have that job that will bring in the income, that will buy me the car in the house and the clothes, and the position in society that I would really like to have. Now there's nothing wrong with having those things, don't misunderstand me. If God blesses you with material wealth, it's very possible and admirable for a believer to have that under the good hand of God. Hold it loosely, don't grasp it, that's not your ambition in life, but you hold it loosely and you let God use it through you, however He sees it. That's wonderful. That's great. It's not the having of possessions is wrong. It's the desire, the ambition, the goal, the pursuit, the love of possessions. That's the lust of the eyes. The pride of life. That's the desire to be recognized. It really flows out of pride. The desire to be recognized. The desire to make a name for myself, to have everybody say, oh, wow, look at so and so. To boast about what we have or to boast about what we've done. To be proud to express to everybody our resume. That's the pride of life. The world operates by those three principles. Practically everything this world system does can be grouped on one of those three things. The desire to gratify the sinful nature, the desire to have what I see and make that my goal, the ambition of life, and to love that, and the desire to be recognized, to be popular, to be famous, whatever you want to call it. That is, John says, everything in this world system. That's it. It all falls in one of those three categories. So, how do we know whether or not we're worldly? How do we know whether or not we're conforming to that world system? Well, we need to ask ourselves, what are my goals and ambitions in life? Do they have to do with material things, money, position, being accepted in society, recognized? That's the world system. What is my speech like? Do I talk? Do I use the slang, the cursing, the complaining, the critical attitude that I hear from this world, and I want to be kind of hit like them, and so I'm going to talk like, is that really what God wants? Or is that being poured into the mold of this world? What is it that we should be separating from? The philosophy and outlook, the way of life, that is dictated by this world system. The next question we should ask is, how do we separate? How is it that we separate from this? Well, Paul says it in verse 2, he says, do not conform any longer. Do not conform. This is active. This is something I do. This is something you do. We are not to conform ourselves to the pattern of this world. The word conform is a very powerful, very interesting word. It means to be formed like, it means to be guided by, it literally means to be poured into a mold that your lifestyle now is going to be shaped by that mold. I'm not a cook. I mentioned that a couple weeks ago I was not a seamster, and someone informed me after the service that I'm grateful for this information, the male seamstress is a tailor. I'm not a tailor. I'm also not a cook. What's a male cook? Is that okay? I'm not a cook. I'm not a chef. I know nothing. I grew up with four sisters. I didn't get any kitchen time. I didn't learn how to cook anything. I didn't cook a few basics, toast and sandwiches and cereal. I can do this pretty well. I'm not a cook, so I don't know much about what I'm going to say right now, but I've seen it. I know how you ladies do jello. I've seen you take that little box. I've seen my wife do it. Take a little box and pour that stuff out. The gelatin, the little crystals of stuff. You put it in water and you heat it up. I'll be missing a few steps here, but I think I've got the idea kind of right. It's hot liquid, but then what do you do with it? You put it in a mold, don't you? You want that jello to look like a cake, you know, but one of the things, you put it in a mold and as it cools, it takes on the shape. If you want it to be those little, I'm not getting this right, have I? I can tell. If you want it to be those little jigglers, you know, you put it in the little things like Mickey Mouse and a cat and a dog and you pour the liquid into that. And then it hardens and you pull the jello out and it looks like Mickey Mouse or whatever. It's taken on the shape. It's been conformed to the image. I'm not a construction guy either, but I've been around a few times when sidewalks were poured and helped with a few of those. And I know that in order to get the concrete to shape like you want it to shape, you have to build a form first. Don't you Kevin? You have to put two before or whatever and you build a form and then you pour the concrete into that form and spread it out to take the shape. And when it hardens, it has taken on the shape of whatever you built the form for it to make it look like. That's the concept here. The word literally means to take on the form of something. And if we don't actively resist the pressure of this world system to conform us to its values, we will find ourselves being poured into molds and getting set up hardened in those patterns. And so we always need to be looking at our goals, our speech, the way we're thinking about life, our ambitions in life, even the entertainment, the things that we allow to come into our minds. I think it was Doug Moon, his commentary on Romans in a practical section, said, if we spend all our discretionary time watching network television, reading secular books and listening to secular music, it will be a wonder if our minds are not fundamentally secular. He's got a point. I know you can put him legalistic with that. I'm not saying you should never read John Grisham. I like John Grisham. I've got a bunch of his books. But if all we ever put into our minds is fundamentally secular, that's how our minds are going to be shaped. That's how we're going to think. If there's no real renewing through the word of God, then we're going to be worldly people. And worldliness really has very little to do with your hairstyle, with the kind of clothes you wear as long as they're modest. It has everything to do with how your mind is being shaped, what you're being molded, you're being poured into. Separation. Quickly. The last one is transformation. Transformation. First two. Middle of the verse. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, transformed by the renewing of your mind. And please, I know half of you in this room are thinking transformers right now. You're thinking, you know, the people that do all that stuff and they're totally different. That's not the idea. Okay. So let's get to the meaning of transformation. Understand what the Bible word here is. The Bible word is a much more interesting process than some mechanical contraption that changes shape. The word here actually is the word meta-morpha-omai. And again, I say that simply to liken it to an English word metamorphosis. We get our English word metamorphosis directly from this word transformed. Now, you know what metamorphosis is. Don't you remember 10th grade biology? Of course, I'll remember 10th grade biology. You remember the butterfly? The butterfly lays an egg and Ben helped me afterwards if I get this wrong. Okay. The butterfly lays an egg usually on a leaf of a plant. And that egg stage, when it hatches, it doesn't come out looking like a butterfly. It comes out a caterpillar, right? And caterpillar starts eating the leaf and other leaves around it to build up body mass. And it kind of outgrows its skin and keeps shedding its skin. And finally, there's one process in which it begins to weave around itself kind of a cocoon. It's not really a cocoon. It's called a chrysalis. And it enters the pupa stage. But after a period of time, what comes out of that chrysalis is not caterpillar. It's a butterfly. Now, this creature was a butterfly all along. It was a butterfly that laid the egg. It's a butterfly all along. It goes through a series of changes in external appearance to get to what really lines up with what it is on the inside. And that's the idea here. Metamorphosis, transformation. God wants to change us to become like what he has us on the inside. We are his children. We are made in the image of Christ. But he wants to continue to shape us and change us so that our whole lifestyle, our way of thinking, our way of speaking, our way of acting, our way of treating other people, begins to match what he's made us to be on the inside. Metamorphosis, transformation. So we're to be transformed to be like him. There's a beautiful use of this word. It's only found two other times in a New Testament. One of them is Matthew 1712. And we'll put this one on the screen for you. Matthew 1712 is where Jesus is on what's called the Mount of Transfiguration. It's with three of his disciples. And there he was transfigured. That's our word. Metamorphosis. Metamorphosis. Transform. Transfigured before them. How was he transfigured? His face shown like the sun. His clothes became as white as the light. You know what that is? That's the glory of God breaking out. And what you now saw on the outside corresponded to who he really was on the inside. And it was just being unleashed. It was being shown. It was being seen. And the only other time this word is used in the New Testament, the second Corinthians 318, where Paul says, that's what God wants to do with you. That's what he wants to do with me. And we all who with unveiled face contemplate the Lord's glory, just like he showed it on the Mount of Transfiguration. When we contemplate his glory, where do we see it? He's not on the mount today. We see it in his word today. But as we contemplate his glory, we are being transformed. There's our word into his image, his likeness, with ever increasing glory. This is a process that happens little by little. But with ever increasing displays of God's glory, we become more like him. We're made more into his image. That's the transformation process. That's what it means to be transformed. What is the means of this transformation? Paul says it very plainly. Transformed by the renewing of your mind. Transformation, spiritual transformation always begins with the mind. Paul says this over and over again in the New Testament. We won't take time to look at the other passages. But over and over again, he talks about being renewed in the mind. He's transformed into the mind, doing spiritual battle with weapons of the mind, overthrowing imaginations and every thought that takes his captive. You see, this is a mind thing. It's not playing mind tricks. It's putting the right information into your mind so that your mind is changed about how to look at life. That's how transformation happens. And so as you fill your mind with the things of God, with the word of God, with who he is, your mind transforms you now to begin to look at life, to think of life, to see all of life from God's perspective. And as you do, you become more like Christ. You begin to display his glory a little bit more today than you did yesterday, a little bit more this month than you did last month. But it calls for the renewing of the mind on a continual basis. What's the result of this transformation? He says it there at the end of verse two. Then you will be able to test and approve. I love the way the NIVs translated that. It's the right rendering of the words. One word. But the idea is you test something out for the purpose of proving its value and its benefit. Test and approve what God's will is. By the way, this is not who you should marry, what job you should take. It's not that kind of will of God. In the context, it's clearly the way God wants you to live. If you're revealed in his word, that will is good, pleasing, and perfect. He says it's good for you. It's pleasing to God's perfect way to live. I mean, that summarizes it all, doesn't it? You really want your life to count for something in this world. You really want to make a mark on this world for eternity? The best thing you can do for yourself, the best thing you can do to most please God and the only complete perfect way to live, is totally dedicated to Christ. Separated from the world system, putting you into its mold and transformed from the inside out to show Jesus more and more to this world. As you do that, my friend, your life will impact people for eternity, for eternity, not just for a few years on this world, but for eternity. Is that what you want? And Paul says these are the basic instructions, dedication, separation, transformation. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for your basic instructions. Help us to realize this is, this is it. This is how we're to live. This is basic. And I pray, Father, that we would lay ourselves totally everything we are on the altar of sacrifice moment by moment every day to give ourselves fully to you, that we would not allow ourselves to be poured into the mold this world has for us, but that we would be transformed to be more like Jesus every day that we live through our minds being fed your word. And who you are, that we may be more like your son. May you do that work in each of us so that we may impact our world for Christ in Jesus name we pray. Amen.