Transformation Through the Holy Spirit

I don't remember. You open your Bibles to Romans chapter 12. This is, uh, what is it? November the what? 17th, um, Romans chapter 12. I want to, uh, focus on, uh, verses, uh, 12 and 13, maybe even 14, but I want to set it in the context of what he's talking about here, because I think this is really so, so important to see what, what Paul is trying to get. The point that he wants to make is that he started off talking about, uh, the sinful human nature, and then he talked about the fact that doing good works never changed that, and then he focused on the fact that faith was the key ingredient in transforming a life of person. And whenever a person had faith in the Holy Spirit came into their life. Now he's ending with chapter 12, beginning the practical application to this. And he's talking about the idea that transformation in human nature comes as a result of the Holy Spirit entering a person's life. So verse one of chapter 12, therefore, I urge you brothers in view of God's mercies to offer your bodies a living as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual worship. And he's describing the fact that worship, spiritual worship is behavior. It's not what you do in a church service. He's talking about spiritual worship is behavior. The attitude that you have in your life and the choices that you make are what worship is and how, how do you worship God? Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world. That's the opposite of worship. When you're thinking as the world thinks, and you make choices like the rest of the world makes choices, you cannot worship no matter how many songs you sing, no matter how enthusiastic you are, no matter how many times you go to church, unless this lifestyle is not embedded in your life, worship never occurs. Church services and singing that grow out of this lifestyle is a continuing part of the worship that you give. That is the attitude you have and the choices you make that bring you to church where you can praise God and enjoy fellowship and learn to scriptures. All of that is a part of the lifestyle that you have and it grows out of that. So don't be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, then you will be able to test when your mind is renewed. It is, you've learned to think like God wants you to think, make choices like God wants you to make. Then you will be able to test. You'll be able to test any thought that comes to your mind. You'll be able to say, is this the will of God or not? And because you have this transformation, you will know the will of God. You'll be able to test and approve what God's will is because his will is always good, it's always pleasing, and it's always complete. So that sets of grounds work for what he's going to talk about next. Now, what I want us to think about is what is the mindset of the person who's outside of the kingdom of God? How do they think? What kind of choices do they make? I want you to think about that. Think about people, you know, who are not connected to Christ. What kind of attitudes do they have? How does their thinking work? What kind of lifestyle choices are they making for themselves? So in our world, this is the world that we're placed in. And that is the people who come to our church to say, I've surrendered my life to Christ, as the two today did. They have been living in the world where their mind is saturated with the way the world thinks. Their mind is saturated with the attitudes of the world and their past life has been filled with choices made apart from God. So they have 30. Well, I see these two ladies, so I shouldn't even try to guess their ages, but let's say they have significant experience in the world with attitudes and lifestyle choices that have brought them to this place. Now, what God's expecting of us is to help them have this transformation so that they learn how they should think about things. What is it that comes up in your life that you should think differently? Let's say, for example, you've lived before and if anyone ever crossed your path, you gave them what for? You stood right up and you told them off and you cussed them out and you told them where they could shut up and sit down and go. Now. You have the spirit of God inside of you. The same thing happens to you now. The first thing that comes to your mind is to say and do exactly what you used to do for all those years of your life before. If you're in a marriage relationship and you've had these kind of conflicts in your marital circumstance, you're going to be reacting to that person you're married to in the same way that you did all those years before. Because it's ingrained in you, it's the only way you know. And so what he's asking is, if you have lived this way and you come to understand that your life is controlled by Satan and you come to see that God has offered you a new life and you surrender your life to God, the Holy Spirit enters your life. This faith that you have, like Abraham has, allows you to enter a covenant with God and become a part of his kingdom. Now he begins to teach you how you ought to live. And suddenly your life is in a battle. You face a situation that you're facing and you have a choice of the way you've always thought. And now you have this new way of thinking. You have a choice is the way you've always handled this, and now you have a new situation you ought to be doing. What Paul is talking about is this tremendous contrast that occurs, if you turn back to chapter one, where he begins this book talking about the terrible condition that our human nature is in. He's talking about the reason that God has come into the world because people are lost. Their lives are separated from God and his wrath is being revealed against people who are living in a way contrary to what he wants them to live. And so in chapter one, beginning with verse 22, consider, therefore, the kindness and sternness of God to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Excuse me, excuse me, I'm reading in the wrong place, I didn't turn the page right. OK, chapter one, verse 21, for although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him. Almost everybody's converted knows that there's a God. But they've never. Connected with him, but their thinking became futile and foolish hearts were darkened, so because they didn't, they started learning to think the wrong way. And their minds were darkened, although they claimed to be wise, they became fools. I've never met anybody who was unsaved, who wasn't trying to do the very best they knew how. And they think they're making really good choices with their life. At the moment, but in God's eyes, they're foolish, although they claim to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images which made made to look like mortal men, birds, animals and reptiles. Therefore, the conclusion of this is God gave them over to their sinful desires, he just let them do what they wanted. The sinful desires of their hearts, a sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another, they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, worshipped and served, created things rather than the creator who's praised forever. Amen. Now he's saying everybody that's lost has traded in the way of God for the way of man. Because of this, God gave them over, verse 26, to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way, men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent actions with other men and received themselves in due penalty of their perversion. And now we have a situation in which in the wisdom of our culture, people say you shouldn't ever say anything bad about homosexual people because that's not being tolerant. Because in their mind, the wisdom is to be accepting of this behavior and choice because people are trying to do the best they know how. So all of us should agree to not think anything bad about this. That's exactly what he's describing in the first chapter. And it's the way most of our culture thinks. I think now there's about 50 plus percent of the people who think that this homosexual lifestyle is not necessarily bad. It's just a choice people make. And we should honor that choice and even affirm that choice. There's a pastor here in town that told me he went to his meeting of the leaders in the state and they wanted him to come back to his church and get the church to pass a resolution that homosexual lifestyle was a normal lifestyle for people. Even churches are getting to the place where they want to affirm that the kind of choices people would make with regard to homosexuality are natural and normal and not wicked and not sinful. Well, we shouldn't be shocked or surprised by this because Paul tells us that's a natural course that people have taken all through the centuries. This is not new. It's not new in the world. It's just the way people think. Why? Because God, because of this, God gave them over to their shameful lust. He allowed them to do whatever they wanted to do. He didn't make it a death act. He could do that. He could do he can make it so that every person that engaged in homosexual activity would have a heart attack. He has the ability to do that. He didn't do it and he still doesn't do it. What he wants is not to destroy them, but to convert them. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind. A mind that thinks wrong. But believes it's right. That's what depravity is, the absence of good, honest, moral thinking. So God said, OK, if that's the way you want to think, go after it. God is very open to people sinning. He doesn't want them to, but he doesn't refuse to allow them. God gave them over to a depraved mind to do what ought not to be done. Now, it's not only true of homosexuality, but every one of us in this room, God has given us over to do things we shouldn't have done. I'm not going to ask you to tell any of them, but we'd be here all night if we did that. We've all done it. And God did not strike us dead when we did it. I can remember thinking as a kid growing up, you know, I have to do something I know the Bible says shouldn't do. I'll probably die. But I didn't. And it emboldened you to do it again. That's the way sin is. They have been filled with every kind of wickedness, and he starts a list here. Evil, greed, depravity, they're full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, their gossip, slanders, God haters, insolent, arrogant, boastful. They invent ways of doing evil. They disobey their parents. They are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless, although they know God's righteous decree. They know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death. They not only continue to do these things, but they approve of those who practice them. Now, this is what he's talking about, the depraved mind being. So whenever the person becomes converted in Chapter 12, therefore, brothers, in view of God's mercy in the past, you now, because you've been changed and the Holy Spirit's come into you, offer your bodies as living sacrifices, not to the thinking of the world, but as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. Your new model, now that the Holy Spirit takes over your life, is a whole new direction. This is your spiritual worship. No longer conform to these patterns, but instead be transformed by the renewing of your mind. How is it renewed? You look at all these things that he just read and you say, those are wrong. I used to think that was OK, but now I understand that's wrong because God says it's wrong and I believe him. Transformed by the renewing of your mind, then you'll be able to find and test what is God's will. It's good and pleasing and perfect. Now I want to skip to verse nine. This is what I ask you. This is the transformation. The transformation is love must be genuine. Love is self-denying service to others. Many people in the world say they love, but what do they mean by that? Their love is, I want to marry you because this is good for me. I want to marry you because it will make my life complete and fulfilled. See, love is focused on the other person, not yourself. And so the transformation is that whenever a couple, whenever a young man or woman go to get married and the Holy Spirit controls them, they're not selfish about what happens. I want this man because of what he can do for me, or I want this woman what she can do for me. But instead, you say, I want to give my life to this woman or this man so that I might make their life more full and complete. That's the transformation that would take place in love. Now in the church, you come to church and people come to church, say, well, let's see, I'd like to go to church and here's what I want. I want music that I like. I want the program for my children that will take them off my hands and teach them the Bible so I don't have to do that. And I want nice people around me that are pleasant and people that I can have good relationships with and that are my kind of people. And when I find a church, it's all that, you know, I'm going to join that church because it will really give me everything I'm looking for in my life. Who's loved? Me. And whenever the Holy Spirit comes into your mind and heart and you go looking, you say, God. Where do you want me to serve you? Show me a place where I can find a way by which I can do the things for your kingdom that I need to do. It doesn't matter to me the economic standing of the people. It doesn't matter to me the circumstances that they have. If you will show me where you want me to serve you, I will do it the rest of my life. Now, where is the focus in that second ingredient? It is on God and it is self-denying. You see, he talks about that being the very nature of this offering your bodies as a living sacrifice. You ever hear of anybody joins church and think they were giving themselves as a living sacrifice and joining the church? They want to think that they're getting a living benefit. I want something that comes to me, I want things that enrich me, I want things that help me. See, that's the me idea that the world has as its primary ingredient for life. What he's talking about is when the Holy Spirit comes in your life, he gives you a whole new way of thinking. Not how can I get what I want, but how can I give you, God, everything you're asking for? That's the transformation that comes. And if you look at this passage, if you look at this passage in chapter 12, they are contradicting or opposite of all of the things in chapter one. He's saying the normal mindset of people are going to be so transformed that they will now be like this. Now, let me tell you that the list he gives in chapter 12, they are impossible for people to do without the spirit of God and the power of God. No one can give their life in self-denying service all the time unless the Holy Spirit of God is inside of them. They will get burned out. They will get worn out, they'll get frustrated and they'll get upset. Because of the constant demand of giving and giving and giving. And if you live a life of self-denying service, you will find yourself being frustrated and disappointed and discouraged and wanting to quit all the time. Because you're giving yourself away all the time. If you're doing it as a sacrifice to God, every time you give a sacrifice to God, he fills you with his own energy, his wisdom and his presence. You see, it's God who renews us. We don't get our renewal from the people around us. You don't get enthused and excited doing the work of God because all the people around you say, you're doing a great job, it's wonderful, look at all the great results you're having. That's not where your energy comes from. Your energy comes from the master who, when you kneel in prayer, says, well done. Well, how can it be well done, God, when nothing seems to be happening? How can it be well done, God, when nobody seems to be responding? What do you mean? I'm telling you well done. Is that not enough response for you? Who in the world can tell you well done that it means more to you than me saying that to you? You see, when God is telling you well done, God is more important to you than anything in all the world. His smile is enough. His affirmation is enough. So people who come and get in the church and say, I'm going to give God everything and they run around and do everything and everything and everything in their own energy get burned out. Living in obedience to God means doing what God wants you to do. Nothing more, nothing less. And a sacrifice of your life to him. So the love that he's talking about here, when he's talking about the difference that comes to a person who is who has had this transformation, genuine love will be the opposite of envy, malice, where you want to hurt somebody because you think they deserve it, or murder even, or heartlessness, which is in that list in the beginning. Now, you think for yourself, what is the normal attitude of people you see around you who come to church and they would be asked by God to be loving? It would be the opposite of self-centered, it would be the opposite of selfishness. So they come to church, the Holy Spirit takes hold of them and they want to do something for God and their mind is changed and now their choices are changed. One of the most difficult things in church is asking people to do things that need to be done. And it's that way outside the church, too. And I'm sure that in every business that you're in, whatever kind of things you do, if you come and say, I want you to do something to someone that's working there, that's kind of a little bit above and beyond the normal, you get a little, OK, I'll go do it. That's everybody. But if somebody is looking for God's guidance, you come to them in the church and say, I've got this job that needs to be done and I prayed and God put your name on my mind. Here's a job that's going to take some time, some effort, and no one's going to appreciate it, but God needs it done. The person should think, gosh, God is asking me to do something for him. He's done so much for me, I'll do anything for him. That's what should happen. The transformation of our mind, the reason we have trouble in church is the transformation hasn't taken place. We come into church, we join the church, but we still have the mindset of the pagans out there in the world. Self-centeredness, I want to do what I want to do and I don't want to sacrifice anything about my time or my life. But I want to serve God, but I want to serve God in the way that I want to, when I want to, the way I want to, that doesn't cause me to miss a single solitary ballgame. Or shopping trip. Well, it doesn't happen. The world's way of doing things, when the spirit enters you, changes you, and to ask people who come to church now, I want you to suddenly change your mind and want to do things for God is just foolish. The heart has to be changed, that has to happen, and the Holy Spirit has to be inside of them. And unless we make that happen, these things don't take place. So love must be sincere, hate what is evil, cling to what is good. Now, what God calls evil is what a lot of people call fun. Now, right, Gary, before those days, that's just fun. And if you thought about coming to church and giving up all those things that were so much fun in your life. You said that's not going to happen in my life because I don't know any better. That is the most fun I know how to have. And here God is asking me to give up what he says is evil and suddenly see it as bad for myself, too. And I've heard you tell a story that happened to you. The things you used to do on Sunday, when you came and made this surrender to Christ and the Holy Spirit came in your life, all of a sudden you saw them as something you shouldn't do. That's what happens. We can't change them. You can't get on to them enough to make them want to change. They have inside to be able to see the world through the eyes of God. How do they do that? Well, the Holy Spirit has to be there. Then they have start reading the Bible. They read it and say, I didn't ever know that was really that bad that God thought that was bad. I've never seen anything wrong with gossiping or telling things about people and maybe hurting their feelings. I never thought anything really about that. That's the way life is. But all of a sudden now, and all of us have had this, you read the scripture and all of a sudden the scripture comes into your mind and you think, boy, I need to change my behavior. I shouldn't have done those things. I never thought of it as being bad, but I can see now God really doesn't like that. See, that's what the Holy Spirit does. So you must hate evil and cling to what's good. Hold on to what God says is right with all your passion. You must be devoted to each other in brotherly love. What causes people in church to get upset? Just give me some things you've heard people say. Not getting your way. I didn't like it whenever they did so and so. I didn't like it when they started a new class. I didn't like it when they said we couldn't do this or that or the other. And I want and I'm not going back because they didn't do things the way I want them to. You've all heard stories like that. What else have you heard kind of things? I want it my way, one of the things that makes people upset. Another volunteer? Don't like something that's going on. It could be music, could be the preacher, could be the Sunday school teacher, anything in the world. They could. They just don't like what's there. It's not not what they want. Well, see what he's talking about, being devoted to each other and brotherly love. Now, if you have a family, you have some kids and your family, if they called and said, I'm not coming home to Christmas because I don't like what Rachel did and I'm not going to be a brother to her anymore. You'd be angry about that. Your sister may do things that you don't like and your brother may do things that you don't like, but that doesn't mean you're not brother, sister anymore. Be devoted to each other. You look out for your brother and sister as if they were really your kinsmen. And if your brother or sister does something that you don't like. You learn to live with it. Or you learn to live without family. It's the only choices. But now see what happens whenever the Holy Spirit comes into my life. And he takes hold of my mind and my heart. I start thinking about you in a different way. You're no longer just people in this congregation, but you're my brother and my sister. Not only in this world, but forever. We may be roommates in heaven. I need to learn to get along with you here. I don't know that in heaven we're going to find everybody. See, people think of heaven like, OK, I'm going to go to heaven and everybody in the world is going to do things in heaven just like I want them. Really? Well, what if you get to heaven and people still don't do things the way you want them, but you have learned how to love them in spite of that? Well, maybe we ought to practice that here. So we'll kind of be ready for it when it comes along up there. What he's talking about is you should now see people who belong to God and treat them as if they were your kinsmen. Now see people who belong to God and treat them as if they were family before you treated people who just were other people and you wanted them to do what you wanted to do. You want everything to benefit you. But now you see your brother and your sister. How can I help my brother and my sister? What would I do to be able to help them? If they were in the hospital, would I go see them? If I hadn't seen them in about six weeks in church, would I call them and see if something was wrong with them? Or would I just say, hmm, wonder where my brother's been all this time? Well, it doesn't matter to me, someday he'll come around. If something's wrong, somebody will tell me. What kind of brother and sister would that be? See, what he wants to have is a transformation of our mind so that we don't look around at the people and say, are you, do you have the same mother and father I did on earth? Now I can count you as my brother or sister. No, since you have God as your father, I have God as my father. You're my sister. A new relationship is formed. That's what Jesus meant when he said to people, they said to your mother and brothers and sisters out here, get you, he said, if you have trusted your life to God, you are my brothers and my sisters. He was saying that the people who were sitting there listening to him were more important to him than his mother, Mary. You don't have any more powerful statement to be made about you than that. And what he's saying now is when the Holy Spirit takes hold of people, these are the changes that should take place. It's not automatic. They, they, they, they become saved. But as they begin to read the Bible, ask God what he wants them to do and put in practice what he tells them, these are the changes that will occur. And if we tell people that they ought to do this without the Holy Spirit, these are the rules you have to live by. You go out there and you do these things. They'll be so frustrated that they'll give up within a week because you can't do these things without the presence of God's spirit in your life. But once he changes the way you think, then he changes the choices you make and he empowers your thinking and empowers your choices. So you're a whole different person. That's what he's talking about. Uh, excuse me. And that's what happens if any human being had tried to ridicule you about your behavior in your BC days, you would have thought them stupid, foolish, and dismissed them. God's spirit changes our mind the way we think and he changes our choices so that we desire to make those choices. What's wrong so much with so much of the church is people have not come to make this surrender to God so that the Holy Spirit now enters their life. They prayed prayer by words, they got in the water, they joined the church, but the spirit is not there. Once the spirit is there, these things will begin to appear. The changes will come. They cannot resist them because they've given their mind to God and their life to God. And if they read the Bible, they talk to God and pray, this will be powerful in their lives. All of this chapter 12 that he's talking about are the normal results of the spirits invading a person's life. The old things are passed away. Behold, all things become new. And when you look around at the churches, they're filled with people that the old has not passed away. It's not God's fault and it's not the pagan's fault. It's our fault. We have not made it clear to people what it means to enter the kingdom of heaven. We have not helped them to learn what God is really expecting of them. So many of them want to be saved. They want to go to heaven and they want to do it in the cheapest way possible. I want to go to heaven, but I don't want to be radical about this. I just want to go do enough so that I can be sure that I'm going to heaven and then I'm through. Well, I'll never get to heaven. That's the tragic part of this. Now, they can find a church that will tell them they will, but they won't. What we're in the business of doing is helping people surrender their lives to God so that God will place his spirit within them. For without that, they will never find this life that he wants to have. I've taken a long time. I'm going to close in prayer. I want to ask you to be in prayer. For our church, people in the church, that we might help them understand what this life is that God wants to give them. Gary would not value for a second that old life he used to love and treasure. Because he thinks differently and he chooses things differently. And without that, people are not going to be interested in the kingdom. Father, I ask for myself and I ask for all of us that we would learn how to think about life as you think about it. That we would learn how to think about life as you think about it. Show us the way we see things that are incorrect. I ask, Father, that you would help me and all of us to make the choices that please you. That we might grow in our spiritual devotion to you and that we might exemplify your character more profoundly and powerfully than we ever have before. In the name of Christ, I ask this. Amen. Amen. Amen.