Be Transformed | Determining My Conformity (September 20th, 2020) - Mike Armstrong

All right, well, if you would grab a copy of God's Word, your Bible that you have, and turn that to Romans chapter 12 again.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 12, uh, verse 2.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

And uh if you watched online or you were here last week, you'll remember uh that just last Sunday we began our new fall series uh called Be Transformed.

And this is where you we are digging into uh how to actually grow, how to actually change as Christians.

Okay, so for any of us, if we have even a shred of humility, we know that we don't have it all together, right?

Whether there are issues in our lives that we know need to change and be need to be purified by Christ as we grow in sanctification.

And so it could be any number of things.

It could be something for you, maybe it's like a how you handle money.

Maybe for you it's like you're you're really stingy and you hold too tightly to that and you're not generous, or or you spend willy-nilly and you're not careful with your finances.

It could be uh something like a complaining spirit.

Okay, probably uh if we did it this way, we could probably all put our hands up with this.

I mean, it's just so easy to complain about basically everything in this world, and that can just just just infect our spirit, infect our attitude.

Maybe that's something that you've seen needs to go.

Perhaps for you it's just a general spiritual apathy.

Perhaps it's been the you know the pandemic, and you know, your routine has been completely thrown out of whack, and we go to church online, and we all know that that is not the ideal thing.

Okay, and so for you it's been really easy to just shift your walk with the Lord into neutral and it's getting kind of stale, and you're kind of apathetic about it all, and you're like, man, this has to change.

I need to be transformed in that.

Could be something, the last example, just like a like a jealous spirit.

Maybe for you, you you know, when you see a certain person or you see what a person has, you're just you're filled with jealousy and you want that.

You want the life that that person has, and it really harms the way that you love people and interact.

Again, the list goes on, right?

Of examples of ways that we would love to change.

Now, transformation, of course, is such an important topic for us because we all know, I think, on some level, that that growth, that becoming more like Jesus is to be a huge part of uh of a believer's life, right?

It really is.

But at the same time, we also kind of get discouraged about that whole endeavor, don't we?

Right?

And I think at times in our in our walk with him, we we sort of mentally check out it uh about it.

We are, you know, or we get frustrated, we get we get jaded a little bit because you know we feel this nagging sort of burden inside of us.

Like, I need to grow, I need to kind of tackle this area that's become a problem, but but I don't really I don't really know how to do it.

I I don't know how to get to where I need to go.

Or or what I've been trying over and over again just doesn't seem uh to be working.

And and for you, it it's like bad habits and sinful tendencies have have set in, and you know, we we partially enjoy them if we're being uh honest, but at the same time we feel guilty that we do.

Okay, so so we pray about it, but but maybe you're sensing my heart's not really in this, and and and I'm saying the words, but but it but my but my heart's not really engaged, and spiritually my walk just feels kind of stiff and wooden and mechanical.

Seems to be nothing really happening in my walk.

A lot of us kind of feel ourselves in that place.

And so what do what do we often do?

Well, we kind of resign ourselves to just kind of carrying on through life in that kind of mode, you know, sort of pretending on the outside that everything is fine and conveying that to people, plastering on these painted smiles whenever we're with other believers or or with with our church.

I think as we give in to that operation and that way of living, I think what happens is this sort of this helplessness starts to settle in and our soul starts to ache even with this hopelessness.

Will I ever change?

Will I ever grow?

If you're a Christian, I'm sure you have felt that.

And that is a I mean, that is a really tough place to be.

But the amazing thing, okay, and the the the truly incredible thing is that it doesn't have to be that way.

In fact, with some adjustments and you know, a little hard work, okay, things can actually dramatically change uh for the better, really in any area of our heart that needs to see transformation.

And so as we jump into this here today, I just want to pray uh for you and pray for us as a church and pray that the Lord would do a mighty work of transformation uh in all of us.

So I encourage you to join me in your spirit as I pray.

God, we uh come before you and perhaps what I have just described, someone here this morning or or watching says, Yeah, man, that's me.

I totally get that.

That's the life that I've been living for a while now, maybe for a really long time.

Lord, I know that personally I have been there, it's very easy to get there.

And so, Lord, as we are aware of the fact that we need to be transformed, that that is part of our growth as believers and our sanctification, of course, Lord, it's it's easy to feel stuck.

It's easy to be super down and discouraged about it and really not have a clue about how to move forward.

And so, God, I pray that as we talk through some important verses here today and some really great concepts, Father, I pray that you would encourage us.

I pray that you would show us that the light at the end of the tunnel, that we would see that change is possible.

Lord, that we can be like you and we can really live as you have intended us to live.

And so, God, give us a joy in this today.

Or really, I would say, cast a vision for your church, God, that encourages us and makes us more like Christ and gets us in the game and involved in the mission that you have called us to.

So, Lord, we thank you for the fact that all of this is possible through Christ, through what He has done on the cross for us.

Lord, I pray that if there's anyone who does not know Jesus today, today they would come to recognize their sinfulness that has separated them from you, but that you have made a way on the cross to remove their sin and to bestow upon them holiness that that is your holiness, and that you and real that they would realize that that now the God of all creation, their creator, uh chooses to view them in this way.

God, I pray that someone would get saved today.

And so, God, I pray that as you work in your church, uh, that you would encourage us and that we that you would be glorified in all of these things.

Lord, give me clarities as as I uh share your word and speak, Lord.

I pray that we would be receptive.

I pray that you would move in our hearts.

We pray this in your name.

Amen.

Amen.

All right, so our theme verse uh for this series uh comes to us from Romans uh chapter 12.

Okay, Romans chapter 12, verse 2, and you're probably there uh by now in your Bible, but here's what it says it says, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed.

Romans 12:2

How?

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.

All right, so that's the verse.

That's the verse that we unpacked uh kind of in three parts last week, but today we're gonna be zeroing in on the very first part of that sentence there, the very first part of that verse.

Do not be conformed to this world.

Okay, so here's how we're framing this up this morning.

This is our big idea here.

I can truly be transformed as I determine the ways I've conformed to this world.

Okay, now you might remember that this very part was the first point of last week's message.

Well, today it is gonna be uh the entire focus, the main focus.

And uh, we've got two points that we're gonna get into today, but we're gonna get to them in a moment here.

Uh first of all, I think it's important that we kind of mind down and kind of recap a little bit of what we talked about last week so that we really understand uh what we're talking about here today.

Okay, so you remember from last week, if you listened or you were here, uh, we looked at that word conform.

Do not be conformed, right?

That word conform means to comply with something or or to consent to something.

All right, so when the verse says, do not be conformed to this world, okay, it's telling us to not consent to a way of operating and functioning as people that's in line with the world's ways.

Okay, where you and I might think about or believe in or long for or behave in ways that represent the world's ways, okay, the the world's system, their values, their standards, their priorities.

You know, last week we also looked at how uh built right into the definition of that word conformed is the idea that an inner change has taken place.

Okay, an inner change has taken place.

Okay, so so what you and I do in our actions and in our in our behaviors in any given situation, okay, what it that does is it reflects certain thoughts and and feelings and and beliefs that are driving our conduct in that moment.

Okay, so let me give you an example here.

Okay, it's a it's a nice, bright, sunny day today, okay, and you're you're driving home from church right after the service, and you get stuck behind one of those slow Sunday drivers.

Okay, and if you're anything like me, you're you you know that the patience is starting to wear thin.

Okay, and and and maybe for you, you're you know, you you end up blowing around them even though it's not a dotted line, and as you go by, you're you're uttering choice words and maybe even giving them suggestive hand signals uh that aren't all that great.

Okay, and and and and that's what you do.

Well, do you realize that those actions, okay, they're they're not godly, okay, but do you realize that they reflect certain deeply held thoughts and beliefs that you hold to?

Okay, about about how the world ought to operate.

The person shouldn't drive that slow.

Okay, or or about your values, about your rights as a person, as a as a citizen, and how that driver in front of you is violating your rights.

Okay, that's an example.

Okay, so so, like we said, being truly transformed involves determining the various ways that I have conformed to this world.

Okay, and to properly do that requires not just identifying the outward behaviors and and actions that we'd like to see change, but but really the the the inner thoughts and beliefs behind those actions.

Okay, because they're they're what drive the actions, right?

The beliefs and the thoughts.

Now, now getting that order is ultra, ultra important.

Because typically what we do is we reverse it.

Okay, we we see that change needs to happen in my life in in some kind of way.

And so what do we do?

We try and change the behavior first.

Have you recognized how you do that?

Well, I'm gonna try and not say the bad words under my breath towards that slow, annoying driver, right?

But because the behavior is driven by those deeply held beliefs in your heart, even in your subconscious, even, and we haven't really addressed those, we find ourselves frustrated when the behavior doesn't change.

Right?

Because we haven't addressed the core.

And so, really, what we need to do is we need to change those deep down beliefs first.

That's what we need to go after, so that our behavior ends up changing in kind of more of a natural or or automatic way.

Okay, from an outflow of believing what is actually true and good and right.

Now, for you, you might be thinking, well, like, okay, that that kind of makes sense as a concept, I think, but but like how do you how do you actually do that?

Like changing my my deeply held beliefs that are in my subconscious, that doesn't exactly sound easy.

Okay, and so maybe you're wondering about all of that.

How how how do we even figure out what those beliefs are?

How do we identify those?

Well, let me walk you through uh a little bit here about uh some things that I have been processing for myself as I've asked those very questions, as I've started to enter into this process a little bit uh for myself, as I've realized that there are a number of things in my life uh that I would like to see transformed.

And I found that a really helpful step uh for me in first uh in getting down into the nitty-gritty of this is first of all determining what my idols are.

Okay, what are my idols?

Okay, and I know that we've talked about idols uh as a church in sermons many, many times, and so this won't be new to uh many of us, okay, but but discovering what our idols are is super important.

Now, as a way of a recap, what's an idol?

Well, an idol is really uh an over-desire of the heart.

An over-desire, where you and I, we might desire uh something that is naturally it's good, it's fine, it's not sinful to desire a certain thing, but but where it becomes a problem is where we want that thing too badly.

Okay, okay, that's that's what an idol is.

So to the point where we actually we want that thing.

Here's God, but we want that thing more than we want God.

God is supposed to be on the throne of our lives, but something else has now taken the place of God.

He has been relegated down here, and that is now the thing that we long for, want so bad that we actually uh worship.

Okay, you figure out what those things are, those are uh your idols.

Okay, so another way of putting this, I heard another pastor say, was an idol, and and I've said it before, but it's a good thing that's become a God thing.

Okay, a good thing that's become a god thing.

Now, for me, as I have I've kind of worked through what are my idols, and I've I've thought through that.

Um I I stumbled across uh somewhat recently uh a really helpful uh chart by uh a guy named Darren Patrick that has helped me immensely just kind of really zero in on the idols of my heart.

I found this in a book that I read, and um I wanted to just get this up on the screen uh for you uh so that you could see this as well.

And I would really encourage you to like take your phone out right now and uh just take a picture of this and spend some time looking at this chart and getting familiar with it because it's gonna help you so much as you start to work through this process of transformation.

I'm stepping aside because you don't want me in the frame at all when you take this picture, okay?

So this is what Patrick calls uh our source idols.

Okay, so each one of us, we all have, when you boil it right down, these four major idols that are down the left side of this chart.

Okay, when you say, when you see at the top there, what I seek, okay, what I seek is what I desire.

Okay, this is what I really want.

And so you see these four source idols from which we can, you know, other idols can certainly come out, but these are the four main ones that all of us have to some degree.

Okay, so so we want comfort.

Okay, that that can become an idol.

We want approval from people, we want, we want control over our life, we want power.

Now, for us, it it's it's identifying what are what are like the what's like the top one, the main one that I struggle with, or or the top two or the top three.

Now, as I saw this and I started to work through it, I can definitely see how all four of them are an issue for me.

Uh, but for sure that the strongest ones would be like the top, the top three, like comfort and approval and control.

Okay?

Now, the rest of this chart, just so we kind of understand this here, um, let's just pick the approval one.

Okay, so let's look at approval.

So a person who desires approval is like the people pleaser.

Okay, the person who just longs for affirmation from those around them.

They crave that, they desire that, they they want that love, they want a certain relationship with a certain person, they just love that person's approval.

Now, the second column, the price I'm willing to pay to get that approval is less independence.

Okay, so is this one for for some of us here?

And for you, you want somebody's approval so badly that you you aren't willing to kind of do things on your own and and you want them to be with you.

And again, we are less independence, that's but that might be a price that you're willing to pay.

The greatest nightmare for a person who has the approval idol is rejection.

Right?

That makes sense.

For you, is it a is it a nightmare for you?

Does it cause you great fear and dread to think about somebody rejecting you?

If so, that might be uh your idol.

Okay, how about this?

Others often feel around me uh smothered.

The approval person so badly wants affection from somebody that they can come across, come on a little bit strong.

You know, and maybe you if this is yours, you've you've sensed that you you've harmed someone or you're afraid that someone may not like you, and so you kind of over-apologize to the person and and you're and you're sending them them texts and and you're calling them, and it's it's all becoming a bit too much.

And the person's like, I get it, like you've apologized, I've moved on.

Time for you to move on as well.

You you can smother other people.

I often feel this is how the approval person feels, they feel cowardice.

The person who wants approval often doesn't have the courage to say the hard thing because they don't want to offend that person.

They don't want to say the hard thing and have that person reject them, and so they often feel like a coward.

Like, and and this is why so many of us we don't evangelize, for example.

I know that I'm supposed to share my faith, and and that's the behavior that I'm supposed to engage in, but because I want that person's approval, and if I tell them they're a sinner and that hell awaits them, they they might not like me and they may not appreciate, so therefore I will not evangelize.

Okay, so you see how this chart just kind of helps us mind down on what the idols might be for uh for you and I.

Okay, so again, I would say, if you haven't already, take a picture of it and spend some time, print it off if you need to, stick it into your, you know, the cover of your Bible and start to look at that in prayer and start to think through what are the idols uh for me.

We're gonna have this as part of our small group questions this week.

And if for you you'd rather get an email copy of this chart, by all means, just let Jeremy or myself or whatever know, and we will fire this off to you this week.

Okay, now once we've determined what our idols are, okay, you're thinking what uh one of the top you know one or two for you, okay, then we can start to go even a little bit deeper and go behind that to what are the the wrong beliefs or or really the lies that I believe that fuel those desires.

Okay, and then of course lead to how we act and behave.

Okay, now this has been this idea of discovering the lies and the wrong beliefs that we have that are underneath the idols, that has been a revelation for me in recent months.

I find myself naturally stronger at figuring out the idols, not as strong at figuring out what are the lies that I believe.

That's definitely uh the hardest part, really, for anybody.

Okay, so think about it kind of this way.

Okay, you've got your behaviors up here.

These are like the symptoms of how we act.

Okay, you've got your behaviors here, you've got your idols now uh down here.

These are our desires, and then below that, okay, you've got our beliefs or or the lies that we believe that fuel the rest of it.

Okay, so so last week I mentioned that I was gonna give you some examples of things that I've been discovering recently, some things in my heart, some of the lies that I have believed that have caused all kinds of problems uh for me in my life.

And as a side note, I thought it was hilarious because like a number of you came up to me afterwards and you were just like, man, I can't wait to hear about all your sin next week.

Like, this is gonna be fun.

And like I'm gonna bring the popcorn and listen, I don't know if it's gonna get into all of that, but uh, I found that hilarious by the way.

Okay, but but I do want to share uh some of this with you, and and why?

Why am I gonna share what some of my issues are?

Well, it's not because I feel particularly comfortable or excited about doing all of that.

Uh the idea here is to be you know a little a bit a little bit vulnerable, certainly, but the idea is to just kind of provide an example of how to do this for yourself.

How to kind of work through these issues for you as an individual or in your Marriage or in your small groups in those different relationships.

Okay, so let's start with some of the behaviors, the actions, the symptoms that we see that want to change.

One that's been big for me, that I have really wrestled with a lot over the last number of years, has been uh just the presence of anxiety and worry and fear.

Okay, and I'll be honest with you, it has become a worse problem in recent days.

Okay, and just to give you a bit of a sense of this, and I've shared a little bit about this with you before, but uh over the last number of years, I have really struggled with sleeping poorly.

Okay, I've just had some really brutal nights, and and really the issue behind that is that I I wake up in the night like super anxious and fearful and just worrying about all kinds of things, like how to run a church and you know, different issues and stuff that that that go on.

And and for me, what I've seen is that over the last three or four years, uh the fall season seems to be the worst time for me.

Okay, so from from September to Christmas is when I tend to have the most anxiety, the most fear, and the most worry.

Now, during the day, uh it it's not plaguing me that much.

I'm I'm not I'm not all that stressed out during the day, but for whatever reason, it seems to come out in the middle of the night.

And and I'm up in the night, I'm tossing and I'm turning, and I'm not sleeping.

A couple of years ago, it was like a month of this straight.

And then like two years ago, it was like two straight months.

And then last year, I wish I was exaggerating when I say this, but last fall, so a year ago, I went from September 1st to Christmas holidays, not one decent night of sleep.

Okay, and so so that that just to give you a sense, that is the the behavior that I was starting, that I was starting to see that was plaguing me, that was becoming a major problem in my life, that I'm like, I've got to change this.

Right?

This is this is a problem.

Okay, so that's the that's the behavior part.

Now below that is the remember the the idols part, the the desires part.

And so as I was thinking about this, I'm asking myself the question, why am I so anxious?

Right?

What is it that I really want deep down in my heart that I'm craving in these moments, and it's got me all kinds of stressed out.

And I realized that, again, for me, it's those those top three uh idols that you see there.

I I want comfort.

I'm up in the in the middle of the night, the last thing I want is the discomfort of stress.

And I just I want sleep and I need this now, and I got a busy day tomorrow.

All that pressure doesn't help, and it just adds to more sleeplessness.

Right?

I want sometimes it's it's that I want people's approval.

Right?

Sometimes relationships aren't in an ideal place, and I'm uncomfortable with that, and I and I don't I don't like that, and so I want the approval, and and sometimes I'm just feeling I'm feeling fear, I'm feeling kind of cowardice, I don't know how to move forward in a situation.

Sometimes for me it's uh it's been a control thing.

I think this is a big one for me.

Okay, I I have this desire for control.

I I I want uh there's there's a problem that I need to try and solve, and but I I don't really know how to do that, and I feel like I will only have peace if I fix that problem, and because I don't really know where to go, I'm I'm kind of stressed out, and and you see that I that I in the often I often feel category, I feel worry.

Right?

So these were the idols that the Lord was starting to show me uh that I have, okay?

And I was thinking through this, and I'm like, I think I'm seeing this fairly clearly, but at the same time, I was feeling very stuck.

Like I like I don't know how to move forward in this.

Okay, I mean I've been praying like crazy.

I go to bed every single night and I pray, Lord, for a good night's sleep, and I've got literally four months of every single night stacked up now, or I'm just like walking around like a zombie.

I don't even know how I'm functioning.

Okay, and then I start to read some dumb article about like Alzheimer's is is linked to not sleeping well when you're younger.

I'm like, great, like the pressure of all of that now is what I'm thinking.

Okay?

And so for me, it was just this like I don't really know how to move forward.

I feel like I'm seeing things clearly, but I don't feel like any change is really happening.

Okay, well, that brings us now to the to the beliefs and and and the lies kind of section that's beneath the idols and the desires that we have.

And and and this is where the revelation started to come for me.

And it was really just this summer through a conversation with a really good friend of mine who was asking me a lot of questions and was sharing uh some of his experience uh with his own anxiety.

He was a business owner, and there was lots of anxious times for him in that.

And and the thing that he said to me, he said, I what he had discovered is that whenever he had an anxious thought, what he started to realize is that there was a lie deep down that he was believing that was triggering that anxiety.

And so through that conversation with him, I started to do some digging uh for myself.

Again, one of the things that he encouraged me to do to start to try and identify the lies was to do it through journaling.

I don't know if you ever journaled before.

We're gonna talk more about that uh in a second.

Uh, but I started to journal throughout this summer and start to kind of prayerfully thinking through like, what is it exactly that I believe deep down?

And it's taken me a while, and I'm still kind of working through a lot of that.

But here are just a couple of lies that I've discovered that I believe.

And again, this is to be to kind of help you figure out how to how to frame these lies up for yourself and whatever uh your problems, your issues might be.

But here are three, and I've written down probably 25 different lies that I believe that have kind of shocked me.

Here's the first one.

Okay, anything that interrupts my inner peace should be avoided at all costs.

As I was thinking about this and this desire for comfort, I I realized that I have this tendency to want to avoid anything that might cause me stress.

And and I and I should avoid it as a self-protection thing to just feel better.

I believe that that was true, and that is how I should behave.

Is it true?

No.

It's a lie.

Should we avoid issues and problems, thing that things that make us feel uncomfortable?

Of course not.

Right?

We should face those things head on.

We should have we should have courage.

We recognize that Christ is with us and Christ will lead us.

And and so I started to realize that was one lie that I believe that honestly drives a lot of me and how I behave.

Here's another one, and honestly, this one's dark.

I wrote this down um earlier this summer.

I am destined to fail and be rejected by those closest to me, and that will destroy me.

That's heavy, right?

I kind of realized when I wrote that down, I just kind of thought for a second, and it was this kind of an emotional moment where I was kind of filled with this sadness as I realized, man, like I have I have honestly believed this deep down my whole life.

And it made me sad.

It enabled me to grieve this before the Lord.

I'm like, man, I I believe this lie that has hindered my my ability to be used well by God in in life and in ministry and in my in my family.

It has it has deeply saddened me and I've realized it's just not true.

Right?

Is is it true that that failure is final?

Not as a Christian, it's not.

Right?

It's it's not final.

Um is it true that I will be rejected by everybody closest to me?

Probably not.

Right?

That's that's not true.

But even if it were true, is it gonna destroy me?

No, it's not gonna destroy me.

I have Christ.

I have a beautiful inheritance coming to me.

I have heaven waiting for me, I have my sins forgiven.

There's nothing that is going to destroy me at all.

That is the truth that counteracts that lie.

But for me, when I wrote that down, it hit me like a ton of bricks in that moment.

And I was like, man, that's something that I I've always kind of sensed, kind of bubbling under the surface deep down, but I've never like, I've never identified that.

For me, that was pretty heavy.

Here's the last one.

I can only be at peace when I've solved the problem.

I can only be at peace when I've solved the problem.

That was one of the things getting me up in the middle of the night.

I've got this problem, I've got this thing I need to fix, and until I figure it out and fix this problem, I can never have peace and get the sleep that I so badly want.

Now, is it true that we cannot have peace unless we fix the problem?

No, it's not true.

That's a lie.

Right?

God talks about a peace that surpasses understanding.

Right?

We can have peace even in the midst of a trial, even in the midst of life being completely sideways, and things are not figured out.

I don't have the ability to control my life in the way that I want to, in a sinful desire kind of way.

The idea of control is a mirage.

I have to rest rather in the truth that God is in control and that He can give me peace even when my life is a mess.

But as I wrote that down, I'm like, man, like I like I knew up here that God is in control, but functionally speaking, deep down, I believe the exact opposite.

I think that I need to be in control.

It's amazing how what we kind of know up here, it can often be surfacey, but it's not, it hasn't plunged deep enough to where it now governs our actions.

Okay, so that were just those are just a couple for me of lies that I identified.

And so can I can I encourage you and really challenge and urge you to start to do that same kind of homework yourself?

Start to think a little bit beneath the behaviors, beneath the idols, even, down into what is it that I actually believe?

And is it even remotely biblically true?

And you might be like, well, how do I start doing that?

Well, that's where journaling comes into play.

You don't have to journal, but I think journaling, there's just something so powerful about actually writing it out and seeing it on a page.

Right?

It really is a powerful thing.

And for me, I would, I would sometimes, I would, I would have my journal with me, and I'd like, here's a thought that comes to mind.

I would write it down, but I would kind of feel like I was, I was, I was kind of hitting the target a little bit, but I wasn't, I wasn't nailing the bullseye.

And so over time, I'm talking days, I would be thinking this through and trying to craft like, no, what is it really that that is the lie that I believe until I kind of nailed that bullseye?

Journaling is so helpful, of course, but that whole journaling process is really a prayer thing too.

Where you're praying to the Lord, Lord, would you reveal the lies that I believe?

God, would you would you open up my eyes and help me to see what's warped and what's off about how I'm functioning so that so that I can be truly transformed and learn to believe what is true, which is really the whole thing for next week.

It also involves talking with people.

Okay, opening up and sharing about what you're working through and what you're going through.

I I just shared some of the darkest lies that I've believed.

I think we all need to be doing that kind of thing.

Maybe not publicly under the microphone like me, but but can we not do that in our, you know, with our spouse, or can we not do that with with a good friend?

Can we not do that in our in our small groups?

I think so much of our Christian fellowship, so to speak, is just so painfully servicey.

Right?

And we we don't actually get beneath into the layers so that we actually see change happen.

Right?

So let so let's let's be willing to kind of step out and take a chance here and be willing to share what's really going on in our hearts and talk that through with a person and get some coaching and get some some counsel in all of this.

Right?

It's it's hard stuff.

I'm not saying it's easy, I'm really not.

And it certainly takes a bit of time.

But I again I I urge you to engage in some of these just practical steps here to help you determine the different ways that you have conformed to this world deep down.

Now, I don't know about you, but I feel like we've already had like a whole sermon this morning.

And it's like a lot of information and and a lot of that, but believe it or not, we're just kind of now getting to the first point.

Okay, but don't worry, these two, uh, these will go pretty quick here, okay?

Here's the first thing.

I can be truly transformed as I determine the ways I've conformed to this world, right?

We've just unpacked what that's all about.

Here's the first thing.

Fully convinced that setting my mind on the flesh makes a mess.

Okay, are you convinced of that in your life?

Right?

I just unpack for you a little bit of the mess that anxiety and fear has made of my life.

Okay, getting to the point where you see your issues and and and you genuinely want to make a change.

I mean, that's such a major step of the transformation process.

Okay, for this, let's flip back now, just a couple of pages in your Bible to Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Okay, Romans chapter 8, verse 6.

Romans 8:6

Now, this verse is part of a passage that describes the very, very stark contrast uh between the thinking or or the approach of an unsaved person versus someone who's been saved by grace.

Right?

Two totally different ways of thinking.

And it's encouraging and challenging us as uh that as believers, we're not to submit ourselves anymore to an unsaved way of thinking.

Well, why?

Why are we not supposed to submit ourselves to that kind of way of thinking?

Well, because of uh of Christ, right?

Because of all that he has done for us, all that he has done in us through the gospel, right?

The gospel tells us that that Christ, you know, once we put our faith in him and believe that what he did on the cross is for us, he forgives us.

Right?

He takes away our shame.

He takes away our fear.

He pronounces us holy and righteous and without blemish.

Right?

And that that holiness is his that he just bestows upon us.

He gives us a whole new identity now.

We just sang about a bunch of that uh this morning.

Okay, so he's already rescued us out of the former way of life, the whole the former approach and the bondage that we were set in.

So the idea as Christians is that we need to stop going back to that, back into that way of thinking.

Now, here's how the verse frames it up for us Romans 6 or 8, verse 6.

Okay, and this is really just the first part of this verse.

It says, for to set the mind, okay, there's the thinking, the beliefs, to set the mind on the flesh is death.

That's death, man.

Now I I really love how the um how the ESV study Bible explains what it means to have your mind set on the flesh.

If you've got a study Bible, you're gonna find that down there in the note uh corresponding to that verse, but if you don't have it there, it's up on the screen now for you to see.

This is what it means to have your mind set on the death on the flesh.

It means to think continually about and constantly desire the things characteristic of fallen, sinful human nature.

That is, to think just the way the unbelieving world thinks, emphasizing what it thinks important, pursuing what it pursues in disregard of God's will.

Okay, so as Christ followers, this should, I think it's safe to say, not be the mental approach that we're uh to take, okay, to embrace.

Though it is extremely easy for all of us, and we all do it, we slip into that pattern of thinking.

We do it multiple times a day, and so many times we don't even realize it.

Okay?

But when we when we do that, guess what happens to us?

Look at how the verse describes that approach, that mindset.

Death.

Okay, death.

Okay, for an unsaved person, that death is, of course, spiritual death and obviously uh physical death.

We all die at some point.

Okay, but for a saved person who's a Christian, to set your mind on the flesh is death to the sense of uh of the freedom that Christ has granted us.

The freedom from bondage.

Okay, it's death to things like your experience of joy.

It's death to your experience of peace.

Okay?

Death to your experience of your purpose.

We're put on this planet to serve the Lord.

When we give into a way of thinking that is in line with the world, we we we leave that purpose that God has put us on earth for, and we we start doing other things.

Okay, it it's it's it's death, our passion for Christ.

That that dies.

Right?

Because we submit ourselves to a former way of thinking, and we're not called to that as believers.

Okay, so simply put, when you and I allow ourselves or give in to faulty thinking, when we believe those lies, when we that that fleshly thinking, when our minds are set on those things, it makes an absolute mess of the Christian life that God has saved us to and called us to enjoy and experience.

Does that make sense?

Now, now for you and I to get to the place where we are transformed by the renewal of our minds, okay, that's Romans 12, 2, okay, we have to first get to the place where we're deeply convinced, okay, that setting our minds on the flesh is a bad idea and just makes a mess of everything.

Right?

So I'm kind of saying here, like we kind of need to get to like a rock bottom kind of a place.

Okay, and so I'd just ask you, are you there yet?

Right?

Is there an area of your life that's been it's it's not been good for a while now?

Maybe it's it's pornography, it's it's it's anger, it's a relationship that's gone side, whatever it is.

Are you convinced that that man, the way I've been thinking about all of these things, that that is death.

That is ruining my life.

It is ruining the lives of other people.

Are you there yet?

Okay, earlier this summer, like I was saying, I had a one of those restless nights where I was just gripped by anxiety and worry and fear.

And again, typically what I do is I'm like half asleep and I'm tossing and turning and I'm praying, and but at the same time, I just feel really anxious and stressed out, and and but but I eventually I just kind of doze on and off until my alarm uh goes off.

Extremely restful.

Really love that experience.

Okay, but what I did um this happened to do this one night uh earlier this summer is I finally got to the point where I was like, all right, that's it.

I'm getting up, I'm going for a walk, and I am having it out with the Lord on this.

Okay?

And so I got up, it was like two in the morning, of course it's it's pitch black.

I walk outside, my my main two thoughts were like, I hope I don't run into a skunk, and I hope I don't get like pulled over by a police officer who thinks I'm like robbing the neighborhood or something.

Okay?

So I walk out, I'm I'm walking down the neighborhood, I didn't get more than like five minutes down the road, and and I was I was I was already praying, I was like, Lord, you know what?

I have had enough of this, I've had enough of this anxiety.

I've seen what it has done for to months of my life, and I I cannot continue to go on with this.

I feel like I see the idols, but at that point I hadn't started to understand the lies beneath those yet.

But I was praying to the Lord, God, would you help me?

I cannot continue to do this.

For us to really gain some traction on the transformation of our minds and and our lives, I think it just makes sense that you've got to first reach that place where you've had enough of the alternative.

I've had enough of the of the problems that that my thinking has has caused me.

I'm done setting my mind on this garbage.

I'm finished with the the glory-robbing way of thinking, right?

That that that that grieves the Lord, that that hurts me, that that harms other people around me and and distracts me from the mission that God has called me to.

Are you convinced yet?

Okay, are you convinced yet through through what God's word is telling you today?

And then and then uh uh also your your through your own life experiences, okay, that that being transformed, at the end of the day, it's the only way to go.

That is by far the best option.

Are you are are you are you there?

Listen, if you're not convinced, you're just gonna continue to go back to that old way of thinking.

You're gonna go back to those old thoughts, you're gonna continue to get sucked into those beliefs and and that life that at the end of the day, as believers, we know deep down on some level it's just it's just not what's best.

Right?

It's it's just not good.

Now maybe as you've been hearing all of this here today, you know, you've been kind of feeling, I don't know, but maybe a bit discouraged about this.

Maybe you're you're even fearful as you start to think through, like, man, like I I don't know, like I want to see some change happen, but I don't really you know quite quite see the path yet, or or the light at the end of the tunnel.

And I'm not sure, again, with honesty, that I really want to give up certain things because our our sin does bring us pleasure, right?

I don't know if I want to give that up, right?

Or I'm scared that that if I If I dive into this process here, it's just going to result in failure like every other option is that I've ever tried.

For you, if that's you and you're feeling like still hesitant or fearful or discouraged or what have you, this last thing should help.

I can truly be transformed as I determine the ways that I've conformed to this world.

Hope-filled, because setting my mind on the spirit leads to thriving.

This is the second part of Romans 8, verse 6.

Romans 8:6

I think we really see it here.

For to set the mind on the flesh is death.

We saw that.

But, okay, transition, okay, but to set the mind on the spirit, the spirit of God or the things of God is, notice, what does it say?

Life and peace.

Listen, you might be fearful right now.

Okay, you may have experienced so much of a mind set on the flesh that you can't even picture what a mindset on the spirit could look like.

Okay, but hey, can I encourage you to try and picture it?

Can I urge you to that?

Let's allow a vision of what a thriving Christian life is about and allow that to begin to fill us with hope that we really can be transformed through Christ, through a mind that is set on the Spirit, on the Spirit of God, on the things of God.

Again, I was chatting with these friends that I was already kind of explaining a little bit this summer, and they were sharing some of their own experiences of transformation and walking me through what they have learned, and one of them shared how it had all of a sudden struck her as she was kind of mining down on some of the lies that she believed, it struck her that you know what?

I don't have to believe these lies anymore.

Right?

These lies that I've had down in my subconscious for my whole life, they tell us, research shows us that our subconscious is formed by the time we're like six or seven years old.

Right?

How does that all form?

I don't know.

Okay, but but like we we have these deep beliefs about life and the world and ourselves and God that are formed at sometimes a very young age.

And she's like, I realize, like I don't have to believe that anymore.

I believe this thing that's not correct, it's not true, it doesn't line up with the scriptures, it doesn't line up with what with what God has has rescued me into the Christian life, and and I can I can choose to reject those and and choose to believe what is actually true.

Right?

She realized her beliefs can actually change as she renews her mind.

And as she was sharing this, that in turn struck me as well.

And again, it filled me with that hope that again, this is this is doable, this change.

And not only that, it's actually promised.

It's promised to occur.

That when we set our minds on the Spirit, life and peace is what follows.

In other words, life and peace.

We thrive.

We thrive as believers.

We begin to function, we begin to live, we begin to think and operate and feel emotionally as Christ intended us to.

Because why?

Because we're anchored now to a new belief system.

One that is true, one that is pure, one that is excellent.

That's Philippians 4, which we're gonna be talking way more about next week.

And because we're believing all of this, those things are now propelling the kind of behavior that I now exude.

And I'm now experiencing this kind of freedom that Christ has called me to, this spirit-filled existence that's mine as a Christian.

Where you and I now actually live out of the identity that Christ has already assigned to us.

Where we rest in the truth that our salvation is secure.

And live now as confident people, right?

As peace-filled people, as people who are joyful and full of gratitude and actually productive in ministry and actually full of love for the world.

Man, the hope that begins to well up in you as you start to catch just even a faint glimpse of the spiritual thriving that Christ intends for you and I.

I mean, it's wild.

It's awesome.

I just love the hope that's built right into this verse here because, well, it does take significant energy and effort and thought process and heartfelt prayer and brutal honesty and humility to mine down on where all of our thinking has gone sideways and soured and it's wrong, and where it's all kind of messed up.

It's also that we can get to the good stuff.

Right?

It's also that we can begin to believe what is actually true.

Step into living as Christ has called us to and enables us to by his spirit.

Listen, next week, next week, we're really gonna turn a corner on all of this.

I'm really excited for it.

We're gonna begin to look at what it means to not hold on to these lies anymore, but to actually believe truth and how to have that actually grip our hearts deep down and not just be a bunch of Bible fat heads, but actually have that trickle down into our into our hearts so that we actually change and transform.

We're gonna talk about how to practically do that just in everyday life.

We're even gonna look at some of the research, the physiology, some of the science, even of what happens in our brains as we begin to do that.

I mean, how the Lord has has wired us and built us is nothing short of incredible.

So listen, this week, as you think about kind of entering into the fray of all of this and just starting to determine the ways that you have conformed to the world and your thinking and your beliefs and some of those lives, okay, begin to see this process as not a hassle.

Okay, as not a as not a burden.

Rather, it's an opportunity.

I think that is such a key word that as believers we need to embrace.

This is an opportunity now to be transformed as never before.

Okay, this really is and and should be an extremely exciting occasion for all of us.

You're starting to see that.

This is like this is actually doable here.

I feel like I got a bit of a roadmap, and I can spend some time doing this, and I can get some people around me who love me enough, who I can trust, to be a little vulnerable with, and they can they can help me along the way and prayer support.

I mean, I think this is gonna be so powerful for the life of our church.

God, we thank you for this time, Lord.

We thank you how your word um really speaks to um the issues.

Lord, it really helps us understand how to get after some of the most important things.

God, we thank you that as we uh some of us are just so aware of our brokenness and so aware of how we've messed up, that we thank you, though, Lord, that that you don't cast us aside in that.

You don't you don't treat us as damaged goods, you you make us whole.

And and Lord, you've already declared that we are holy.

So I pray, Lord, that as we think through these things, we'd be able to really just live out of what you have declared for us, who you have declared us to be.

And so, God, encourage your church today and give us wisdom as we kind of think through these things for ourselves, Lord, and give us joy, joy in the idea of being transformed into the image of Christ.

Lord, that you do all of this in the powerful name of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Amen.