You can open your Bible to Romans 12. We're gonna get into Romans 12. You know, for the last couple months, Katie has really sensed from the Lord that we were supposed to as a community, get into a specific passage in Romans 12. And that we're actually supposed to give ourselves to studying and being transformed by this passage as a community.
And so over the next four or five months, we are going to be going phrase by phrase, line by line through Romans 12 verses 9 through 21. So we're just gonna take it really slow and go through Romans 12 and go line by line. We're filled with so much excitement about this, you guys, this is gonna be amazing. Because what the Lord has done is he's really communicated clearly before you guys move as a community into this next building, in this next space.
I want you to get closer to one another and closer to my heart. I want you to get more connected. And as we get closer to one another, how many of you know that things rise to the surface when you get closer to people in relationships? Where it's like somebody's in acquaintance and it's like, hey, we're both pretty much perfect people.
And then you like get a little bit closer to them and you're like, oh no, all right. That's what happens when we draw closer to one another. We just start seeing the junk of other people's lives. And that's where love matures in relationships.
And we as a community are going to mature in love. We're gonna mature in love for God, but we're gonna mature in this horizontal love. We got like, I wanna love God vertically, but there's this horizontal thing, loving my neighbor, loving one another well that we're gonna be, I want us to be known as a people that worship, a people that pray, but really a people that love one another, where people when they walk in they go, how do these people know each other so well and love each other so well? I want that.
And it's going to make, man, I've dreamed of this day where all of a sudden our city becomes jealous for what the people of God have. Where there's this like provoked to jealousy. Yeah, for the Jewish people, but for the world to go, why I want that? And that's what the love of God does.
It just provokes this like, I must have it. And so we're gonna be going through Romans 12. And what I want us to do is have a little bit of context when we're going through this passage, I want us to have a foundation of understanding of what the context is for this passage, what was happening before and all that. But first, I wanna just address one thing I think is really important.
When we look at the church right now, since 2020 and a little bit before that, there's actually an exodus out of the local church and out of the faith. And I believe, and I would attribute that to three things. And as I'm talking, I want you to kind of be listening, going, is that what I think? Cause it's okay if we think differently about stuff.
But as I've been interacting with people and with the church and with people that are formerly used to go to church, now they don't. These are the three reasons why people are leaving the faith right now. The first reason that I see that people are leaving the faith right now is because of the sovereignty of God. And a misunderstanding of the sovereignty of God.
This is what it looks like. Life is hard, there's a problem of pain, we go through difficult things. And most of the church world and most of the world gives credit to God for our pain, for our suffering, and all of the things that are going wrong in the world. Even that's how church people comfort other church people when they lose a loved one, is that it was God needing another angel.
Guys, we're giving God credit for stealing, killing, and destroying. And so the world and the church thinks God's the one behind all the suffering. And we see in John 10 that the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But Jesus came that we would have life and life abundantly, right?
And so there's a message that we preached is probably five years ago called the Good God Series. You can go find that online if you want to dive deeper into this topic of sovereignty. So I'm opening a big can of worms. I know that there's theologians who could have studied this topic for 40, 50 years, and then they disagree on the conclusions of this topic.
So I'm aware of that. And if you are in this room and you're a Calvinist, you can still fellowship here and be a part. And we love you and we can be unified and disagree on doctrine. We can worship in the same room if you're a Calvinist and we love the same Jesus.
And that's amazing. But so you can disagree with me if you want to. OK? But I believe that one of the reasons why people are leaving the faith is because of a misunderstanding about the sovereignty of God.
Number two, I believe that people are leaving the faith right now because of the topic of sexuality. And this is usually how it plays out. I have a friend. I'm just like playing out a scenario.
I have a friend that is struggling with their sexuality and maybe they're part of the church or maybe they don't love God. And they're attracted to the same sex or they're having issues with their gender and they're going, I feel trapped in my own body and there's gender dysphoria going on. And there's this tension that they feel like I feel overwhelmed because there's something not right. And it feels like my sexuality is not right.
And or it feels like I, since I can remember, have been attracted to the same gender. And there's this tension that as that person's friend, how do I approach that conversation? And how do I process that? Because I love this person.
And I'm filled with compassion for honestly, the horrible struggle with that. And I'm filled with compassion and I'm going, does God not have compassion about this? And then when I look at the scriptures, it seems kind of clear. And I'm faced with this tension now.
Because if I am in relationship with them and I disagree with their lifestyle, or disagree with how they've perceived what they desire sexually and I disagree with that, then I'm rejecting them as they're experiencing that, right? And so now I have a choice of who do I align with? Do I align with what God said and still love them? Even though they're going to experience that as rejection and they'll probably cut me out of their life.
Or do I just kind of go, well, I don't know how God could not understand. And I don't know how God could do that. And if he's really a good God, then he would know that that's just how you were born, how you were created. And you go into the excusing, you go into the gray, and you kind of just go affirming what they choose and what they feel as being good.
And really what it comes down to, and I know that the air's just been sucked out of the room. I know that. I feel that, right? But really, I believe it's a choice that we all have to go, do I love that person more than I love God?
Because if you love that relationship and that friendship and that person more than you love God, then that's the problem and that's why you would leave the faith. Because you'd go, I can't say no to them. So I must have to say no to God. And listen, I know some of us are going to land in a different place.
And I want you to know you can still have unity in the body, you can still love Jesus. But we have to grapple with some of these topics. And they're not, and the reality is, the church hasn't done a good job of talking about it. I know that.
I know that church has been horrible about these topics, about sovereignty, and it's this like, we're going at each other, and it's argumentative, about sexuality, and we dance around it. I even feel that tension right now. Because it's the politically correct thing, and I feel this tension of stepping on toes, and I feel like there's eggshells. And that's what the church has felt like for decades.
We can't, we can't live like that. We had to just be real in process and talk about it, right? Now, I see why those two reasons are reasons why people would leave the faith. Because there's confusion, there's a lot of confusion, and there's a lot of deception around those two topics.
But the third reason of why people are leaving the faith should not be. The third reason is called hypocrisy in the church. People are leaving the church in droves, not because of political beliefs, not because of all the whole host of things that people could leave the church about, not because they don't like the worship music, or the messages, that's not why they're leaving the church. They're leaving the church because of plastic Christianity, because of hypocrisy, of saying one thing publicly, and doing another thing privately.
Because of, when you open up the hood, and you look underneath the hood, and you see what's back there? It's not good. Because there's abuses that are silenced. Because there's lack of integrity, and it's just covered up.
Because when we, as the people of God, are living in our everyday lives, we're actually not being transformed to look like Jesus. And so when people look at us, they go, well, that's the representation of who God is. I don't want anything to do with God. It's like the people that at work, they wrong a coworker, call themselves a follower of Jesus, and then they don't apologize, and accept responsibility.
It's like you're failing at work, you're screwing everything up, and then you're not humble enough to take responsibility for it. And your coworkers are going, he's a Christian. I don't wanna be like that. How many times are people leaving the faith, or even just having this like, a virgin's to the faith, because I don't wanna be like that.
We have a responsibility to represent Jesus. His character is infallible, his character, just like stands the test of time despite us. That's amazing. But we have an opportunity as the people of God to go, I can represent him, and it can't just be in talk.
It has to be like, we walk the walk. So I wanna just talk about Romans 12, and the reason why I'm talking about this is the hypocrisy piece, I know I just opened up a couple of cans, and you're like, wait, so that was it, on sovereignty and sexuality. And some of you are like, I'm not listening to this guy. And that's okay, if you're like, if you wanna take an app, go for it.
But listen, we can love one another, and we can be in process. I just want you to not take my word for it. And I want you to not take the podcast word for it. And I want you to actually study the Bible for yourself.
Okay, don't read the blog, and have that make your decision about sexual ethics. Please, don't take my word for it. Look at God, look at the Bible, read it, read it with him. Don't try to figure it out yourself in your mind, read it with him.
Don't have other people's opinions, and your friends' opinions, shape your mindset, actually let God shape your mindset, okay? All right, the reason why I'm talking about hypocrisy is this. Because when we look at Romans 12, 9 through 21, those are like the marks of a Christian. That's like what it looks like to not be hypocrites, to actually live this thing out.
And so it's imperative for the sake of our city, that we live into a lifestyle. That's why we're doing everyday lifestyle school. If you wanna like really have things explode in your life and God in a really, really good way, we're gonna go through Romans 12 and you go through everyday lifestyle school, okay? Romans 12, we're gonna jump into it.
Let's all stand, I want us to read Romans 12. Romans 12, I'm gonna just read verse one through 21. I appeal to you there for brothers, and we can put this on the screen, oh yeah, we got on the screen, you can open up your Bibles and follow along, I'm reading from the ESV. I appeal to you there for brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
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, acceptable, and perfect. For by the grace given to be, say to everyone among you, don't think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as is, as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we though many are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them, if prophecy, in proportion to your faith, if service, in our serving, the one who teaches and is teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, and the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.
Let love be genuine, abhor what is, this is it, right here, this is what we're gonna give our next couple months to. Let love be genuine, abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good, love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor, do not be slothful in zeal, but be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer, contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them.
Uh oh, rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep, live in harmony with one another, do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly, never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so as far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all, beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord.
To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him, if he's thirsty, give him something to drink, provide so doing, you will keep burning coals, oh my goodness, on his head, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Amen, amen, everybody say amen. All right, sit down. Wow, okay.
I think it'd be so cool if we memorized Romans 12, especially the verses 9 through 21, if we just all started memorizing it, because we're gonna read it a lot, so let's just memorize it together. I think it'd be cool if we had a couple hundred of us that just all knew Romans 12, okay? So the context of Romans 12 is this, there was a local church in Rome, city of Rome, and there's this guy named Paul, and he was writing letters to local churches everywhere throughout the first century, and he wrote a letter to the church of Rome. Now, before he wrote the letter, there's Jewish Christians, and then there's Gentile Christians in Rome.
How many of you guys grew up in a denominational church? Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, okay. So you'll understand the early Jewish Christians, okay? Because they were Jews, and then they converted to another denomination within Judaism called Christianity, but they were called the Nazarenes, okay?
So that's what their Jewish sect, or Jewish denomination was. So there was Jews, they were part of that Jewish denomination called Christianity, called the Nazarenes in the first century, and they were part of the Roman church. Then there was Gentile Christians that followed Jesus, even though they weren't part of the Jewish faith, and they got like welcomed into the Jewish faith through Jesus, okay? So there's these two groups of people.
The emperor at the time says, we don't like Jews, they need to leave the city. And so all of the Jews, both Jewish Christians and just normal Jews needed to leave Rome for five years. Well, then the emperor says, hey, you can come back. So they come back to the city of Rome, and the apostle Paul writes a letter to the church in that moment when all those Jews are coming back, because he catches wind, that all of the churches in Rome, they're in dissension and fighting, because the Jewish Christians are fighting with the Gentile Christians, because when the Jewish Christians showed up, it didn't feel like it was Jewish Christianity anymore.
When they got back, there was all this fighting around, like you're not practicing the Sabbath, you're not circumcising your men, and you're not eating kosher. And so they're having these conflicts, and how many of you know that in our life, we're gonna have conflict, and we're gonna have different cultural backgrounds, and we're gonna have different socioeconomic backgrounds, and we're gonna have different ethnicities, and we're going to be rubbing shoulders with one another just like the early church. And so we're gonna hit up against some of the same things that the church of Rome was sitting up against. And the apostle Paul is writing the letter to them so that there's a strong foundation for them to build off of, okay?
So that's the context of Romans 12, and throughout Romans, if you just wanna flip back through Romans, just start flipping your Bible through Romans one through four. Romans, so what I'm gonna do is give like a 30 second overview of the book of Romans. Romans one through four, the apostle Paul is writing, and he's talking about God's righteousness, that like God's perfect, and you can't make a way to God apart from faith in Jesus. And so he starts rolling out, you get to have a new family, you get to have a new status before God, and a new future if you follow Jesus.
That's Romans one through four. Then Romans five through eight. How many of you guys love Romans five through eight? It's powerful.
Romans, I mean, all the Bible's powerful. Romans five through eight. Romans five through eight is all about your new identity in Jesus. And so the apostle Paul is going, hey, you get a new family, you get a new status, you get to have a new identity.
So he's laying the foundation of the gospel. Romans one through eight pretty much. Then Romans nine through 11, he goes, hey, I want you to know, even though many of you are Gentiles and you're not Jews, I want you to know that there's still a plan that God has for his chosen people, Israel. In Romans nine through 11, he's kind of giving commentary on there's still a place for our Jewish brothers and what God's story is for them.
Then we made it. After 45 seconds, we made it. Romans 12 through 16 is kind of, hey, let's take everything that we learn and put it into practice within the context of community. So Romans 12 now is him going, let's actually take everything that we learn and have it land for you so that your lives change and your community changes.
Does that make sense? All right, let's get into it. Romans 12, verse one, what I want to do is I want to just talk Romans 12 verse one through eight, because then next week we're getting into each phrase of nine through 21. So next week we're going to do let love be genuine and that's all we're going to focus on next week is let love be genuine.
And so we're going to take those phrases, phrase by phrase for the next couple months, all right? So we need context of what's coming before this. Romans 12, verse one, I appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of God, mercies of God that he talked about for the last 12 chapters to present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable living sacrifice. Okay, well we'll just get into it.
Holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. As he's talking about sacrifices, he's just talked about sacrifices in the Book of Romans before this, okay? And so he's already laid out this reality that there is no need for any more sacrifices of animals for you to get clean and be made righteous before God, all right? So now he's going, you can't make animal sacrifices.
They have no, there's no weight to your animal sacrifices now before God the Father. So what do we do is the big question, like if I can't worship God with animal sacrifices, then how am I gonna worship God? He says, you're gonna be the sacrifice and you're gonna be living sacrifice. In other words, you're not gonna die, your whole life is going to be on the altar of sacrifice.
Your whole life is gonna be surrendered to God, right? That animal is gonna get sacrificed. It would have to surrender to the priest, making the sacrifice. You as a person now are going to surrender your whole life everyday life to God.
Well, but you're unclean, right? And the Lord goes, no, you're holy and acceptable. Look at that, first one. He says, holy and acceptable.
So because of what Jesus did now, even though you feel like I'm not pure, I'm not holy, well, Jesus has made you holy and acceptable. And so he actually likes your worship because you are holy and acceptable. That's really good. So now God likes my worship.
Even though how many of you know that sometimes we have like mixture in our worship, you know what it's like? Well, we'll talk about that a little bit, okay? Roman Swell, what else is this? It's not like 100% of our mindset is always like really worshipful.
Sometimes there's like mixture in it. Sometimes like I worship God in itselfish, but it's love and worship and it just feels all mixed up. And the Lord's going, it's holy, acceptable. I love it, right?
That's like the grace of God, right? All right, Romans 12 verse one, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. I think this brings up a really confusing thing for many of us. We believe that Jesus is worthy, not just of Sundays, right?
But like every day, that's why we're called every day. Cause Jesus, some of you are like, wait, what? No. That's why we're called every day.
Cause Jesus is worthy of not just church services, but like everyday life. And I think sometimes that's a really good like talking point, but then how does that play out in real life? And what the possible I was talking about is like your everyday life is worship. And I'm going, how does that work when I'm not at the church building?
And I'm not, I can't play the guitar. It hurts my fingers when I play guitar. I don't wanna play guitar. And I'm like, I wanna worship God, but what is worship then when I'm not in worship service?
And so what about, so in life, we have like things that are very, we know that that's worship, right? Cause it's like praying, talking to God, singing worship songs. And then we have the other spectrum of like, we know that these things are sin in our lives, right? Like everyday life, I know that that action or that thing that I thought or that idea or how I reacted was sin.
And then about 95% of our life is neutral. Isn't that true? It's like, it's at breakfast. And I'm like sitting at the table or it's mowing the lawn or it's doing taxes or it's writing emails or it's cleaning the dishes or it's making the bed.
Like these are all neutral. And so how do the neutral things become worship? It's like some of us are going, well, I turn on worship music while I do it. So it's worship, right?
It's like I'm gonna do the workout and I'm gonna listen to worship. So it's worship. Isn't that what we do? It's like, and then the reality is we didn't worship at all.
We were just listening to music. Okay, so what do we do with this neutral thing? How do I become a living sacrifice in my daily life? How do I worship everyday?
Because we are becoming a worship community and it doesn't, I want the whole city of Minneapolis in St. Paul to be a worship community. Where it's like, there's instance of worship rising to heaven. It's like billowing smoke of so much living sacrifices on the fiery altar of love that there's this instance that rises to God want that for our city.
What does that look like? Well, when I'm eating eggs at breakfast, let's look at verse two. By the way, I make some pretty good eggs. Don't you think?
No, her eggs are, every time I make eggs, Katie's like, I should make them. Next time. Verse two. Where does that come from with it?
Okay, verse two. 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, acceptable and perfect. I want you to look at that phrase will of God. So right before that phrase will of God, it says testing and like proving or discerning what is the will of God.
And so our everyday life, our way to transformation and our way to worship in everyday life in those neutral moments is discovering what is the will of God. And some of you guys are like, okay, the will of God. And it's this big black box that you got to figure out. You can't figure out what's inside of it.
Listen, when God says his will, the will of God, do you know what that really means? What he wants? What he desires, what he likes, what he enjoys, what he finds good and acceptable. Look at that at the end of the verse, good, acceptable and perfect.
What God's opinion is about things, okay? And so when, I'm gonna bring it back to eggs, okay? When we're sitting and we're eating our eggs and it's a neutral activity of life. And then one of my kids comes up and I'm just enjoying these eggs and they start complaining.
And in that moment, I respond in patience. It's worship. And it's worship. Why is it worship?
Because he likes it. That's what worship is. Whatever God enjoys, whatever God likes, whatever he prefers, whatever he thinks is good and acceptable, that's worship. So when I'm pulling up to work and I'm in my car and I'm stressed out and I'm overwhelmed, I know that many of us feel just like I do.
When I show up to work and it's a stressful day, there's a lot of things that need to be done. In that moment, before I get out of the car, it can just be neutral or I can have a moment of vulnerability go Lord, I'm stressed out. I feel overwhelmed and it was worship. No more communication.
I got out of the car. I said Lord, I'm overwhelmed and stressed. And I got out of the car and the Lord's like, oh, I love it because I love vulnerability and I feel more connected and I like it, it's worship. Oh, well, are you saying that we can have, there's like millions of different ways that we can worship God in a, yes, that's exactly what I'm saying, you're getting it.
You're getting it. So when you're exercising and you're going, hey, I don't have to listen to you, no, okay, you're listening to a podcast. It's not a Christian podcast. Oh no.
And it's on economics or it's on like the economy and stocks and you're like, okay, this is just maybe going both sides I do that, right? And it's like, it hasn't worked out well for us and then the investment category, all right? But listen, I'm still listening, I'm still growing. All right?
But listen, I'm listening to the podcast and I'm going, I actually, God, I want your heart for finances. And I just like say that. You know, I can take that thing, it's like an hour and a half of people talking about the stock market and it can actually be worship. It doesn't, see, we're redeeming and actually taking all of life and we're going, it's all gonna be for him.
I'm gonna do it with him. I'm gonna be with him. It looks like you're around the fire with a group of friends and you're not, like somebody doesn't have a guitar and they're not singing worship, but you are enjoying one another and you're just, there's a moment where you just go like, man, I love it that God's doing that in your life now. And, or you just honor them for a little bit.
Or you just acknowledge, and all of a sudden the conversation just goes a little bit towards the Lord. He loves it. He likes that. And it's not, we don't have to get religious about it either.
You know? So sometimes we can feel guilty, it's like I didn't make it about God. You know, like I hung out with my friends the whole day and I didn't like steer the whole conversation to God every single time we were starting a conversation. Stop getting all caught in your head.
You love him and conversation, because sometimes it's intentional, but sometimes it's non-tension, but you love him and it will start happening if you love him. But sometimes it takes intentionality to make things worship. Doesn't just happen. And so when we're talking about living sacrifices, I believe that God is inviting us into the playground of worship in life.
We make it really strict and the Lord's going, look at this whole place set of your life. I can be a part of this whole playground experience and there can be worship on the jungle gym and the slide and all of it. It can all be worship. So God's calling us into that lifestyle.
And you know, as we're looking at these next couple months and we're looking at Romans 12, 9, through 21, I believe that there's two ditches that we could fall into with week by week, we're going phrase by phrase and there's two ditches that I think are threats towards us as a community when we look at these couple months. The first is this, the ditch of Pastor Josh talked about abhor what is evil and cling to what is good. And I feel like I haven't been abhorring what is evil. I feel like I haven't been hating what is evil.
I feel like I haven't been living in that. And I'm feeling shame and I'm feeling guilty and I'm feeling like I'm not enough and I'm feeling self-pity. And I'm just going to kind of stay here. I'm going to feel sorry for myself and I'm going to get stuck into I just have tried and I can't do it and I don't know why, but I just, maybe I'm not like everybody else and this is just who I am and I feel sorry for myself.
That's a ditch. That's not who you are. God has already said in Romans five through eight that you are free from the slavery to sin. You are free from the law.
You are free from that mindset. You don't have to live in that anymore, but it's a ditch that could be coming because we're going to be talking about the truth and the truth kind of exposes when we're not living into our identity. We don't have to feel bad about it, but we also in the other ditch don't ignore when we're not living into our identity. And many of us maybe go, well, this is just who I am.
This is my identity. I'm the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. And then we miss the mark and we're actually not in obedience to God, but we kind of like close our ears to it and don't accept responsibility for the consequences of our mistakes. So it's like important for you to name that and go, no, I'm going to actually look at that and then bring it to the Lord.
But this is the other ditch. I'm talking about weeping with those who weep and you're going, I'm probably like a 10 out of 10 on weap with those who weep. You're like, you can put any person in this whole place and they start crying and I'm going to be crying right with them. I'm a crier.
I'm so good at weeping with those who weep. Just go ahead, bring them. I'm ready. And you're just ready to cry, right?
You're ready to weep. And you're going, I don't even need to grow. This is like a strength, there's a pride and arrogance. That's a ditch.
When you look at this and you go, I'm actually, I don't even need to learn about this. I'm good. I'm just pride and arrogance. The other ditch in this moment, as we're going through these things, is you go, yeah, that's really good.
Great, great message. I'm going to try to do that. And you get into self-righteousness, thinking that you're going to be able to walk these things out in your own strength. That's hilarious.
You think you're going to be able to do that? You look at that list, it was a long list. It took me a long time to read that. Like it was hot in here.
And it took a long time to read that. And you think that you're going to be able to produce that in your own strength just by modifying your behavior? It's not going to work out for you. That's called self-righteousness.
That's a ditch. You're trying to do it in your own strength. Well, then how do we do this? If we're not supposed to try harder, and we're not supposed to wallow in our failures, what's the narrow way to actually have this transform our lives?
It's to be like sons. Sunship is the narrow way. And this is what sons do. Do you know what they do?
They figure out what their dad does and says and likes, and they look at that and they go, I want to be like my dad. That is our pathway into transformation. So that we're going to look at 9 through 21. And it happens through relational osmosis with God.
It's not going to happen with you trying and white. And hopefully it's not going to happen with you just looking at it and being aware of your failures. We are going to preach God. And then as we look at God and what he likes, it's like verse two, the will of God.
We're going to look at what he likes, what he thinks, what he desires, who he is, what he enjoys, what he finds good, acceptable, and pleasing. We're going to look at all of those things. And it's going to start changing our perspectives and our thinking patterns and how we process information. And how neural pathways are connected in our brains because we're going to be looking at God and how he does things in his perspective.
And then it's transformation from the inside out rather than focusing on the surface. Modification is when you take what's there and you kind of just change it on the surface. You modify it. And that's what most of the time we try to do in our faith with God.
We just try to make ourselves better as if that's how we got into this thing. That's not how this whole thing started. He completely is the God that renews or makes new. That word transformation in verse two is a metaphor.
Metamorphosis. It's like the caterpillar to the butterfly. It's like, whoa, that's really different. It's still you, but you are transformed.
Right? It's a transformation of our lives and transformation. And it's going to happen in between your ears and your mindsets getting shifted and changed to think like your dad, your heavenly father, to think like him. And that's our pathway forward as a community.
And it's actually God's strategy to unify us across every different dividing line that we might have. It's going to unify us because we're all getting our minds renewed and connected to the Father. Let's all stand. I want to respond to the Lord.
As we close, I want to acknowledge the Romans 12, 3 through 8, 4 through 8. That says that, hey, this is how we're going to see transformation. And then we see we all have a part in the body. And so it's this really, really cool thing that the apostle Paul is doing.
There's personal transformation. And then the book end is this is what it looks like to do community. And then he validates all of us in our different gifts and ability that he gives us grace to walk into. And so the Lord's going, no matter your background, I've given you a special grace.
No matter your faith, I've given you a special grace that's actually part of the whole body. And I want to just commission us as a community to go, I'm not going to settle to just be in pride. And I'm not going to settle to just be in self-pity and false humility. But I want to, as sons and daughters, walk into my identity and walk into the graces that God has given me because the body needs you to be you.
At the end of the four or five months that we're going to go after this passage, the goal is not for you to be more like somebody that has a microphone in their hand. That's not the goal. The goal is for your personality to not look like somebody else is in the room. The goal is not for you to grow in a gift that God hasn't given you.
The goal is that you would be you looking like the Father. The goal would be that you are transformed into being who you are always meant to be, not looking like another man, but looking like your heavenly Father, looking like your dad. So I just want to commission us out. And if you want to, you can put out your hands as an act of like, I'm going to surrender to what God wants to do over the next five, six months of my heart.
Lord, we just say that we want to get closer to you before Christmas. I want to sit at Christmas dinner and think back over the last six months and go, wow, I really grew closer to God. I really had more of a history with him. And he really changed me and changed my mindsets.
And I've seen my life getting transformed because we got closer together. If you want to say that in your own words, you can do that. You can whisper with God like, Lord, I want these next six months. I want to get closer to you.
I want to build history with you. I want to faithfully draw closer. I want to know what you like. I want to, if it even helps you, you can repeat phrases after me in your own words.
God, I want to know what you enjoy. I want to know what you like. I want to know what you think is good. I want to know what you think is beautiful.
I want to know what you think is acceptable and perfect. I want to have your opinion. I want to think the way that you think. I want to have your perspective.
I want to feel your emotions that you have. I want to have your heart for people around me, for my city, for my family members, for my neighbors. I want to be like you. I want to be like my dad, my heavenly father.
Would you transform my life? There's so much growth that I have to do. And I can't do it in my own strength. Holy Spirit, help.
It's the most popular prayer probably ever in the history of the church, help. Need your help. Lord, I thank you that our little glances, I just speak that over all of these sons and daughters that the little glances, that the little acts of sacrificial patience and kindness, that the little acts of not retaliating when a co-worker or a family member says this or does that, so all of those things, those neutral things turn into worship. And so I commission out all of these worshipers that their everyday lives would turn into lives on the altar of surrender and sacrifice and worship.
And I commission these men and women out as messengers of the gospel of hope and good news. And we pray all these things in the name of Jesus, amen.