Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Four Steps To The Renewed Mind Pt.5

Hallelujah! Amen. Always good to be in His presence. Let's turn to Romans 12. We want to continue with our study on the renewing of the mind.

While you're turning over there, just a quick report again from Africa—some exciting things that are going on there. The guys are looking right now for an extension on our visas and looking to get our work permits and registration that are still going on, but the Lord's doing a lot of great things. It's an exciting time; continue to pray. Ron had written and told us that one of the things is that the President actually is putting a freeze on registrations because within the churches in Kenya, they're having a lot of turmoil. There's a lot of violence that's going on—one church actually attacking others and killing members. We do that with our tongue here in America, but they do it literally in Africa. A lot of turmoil that's going on, so they've really stopped registration. That's part of what our problem has been, but nobody would tell us that, and we finally found that out.

They said there's really only one guy that could possibly get this through—the President himself. So I told Ron, Well, just believe God to open doors to see the President then. So we're looking toward that and a number of things that were transpiring. Well, come to find out, they said if you really want to get it done, it's not the President; it's his buddy, the second in charge. He's been General Secretary. They were raised together as boys in their hometown, and that's who you really have to see. That's kind of become the general consensus.

Well, Ron was flying back from Nairobi. The plane was up in the air for about five minutes. They called it back, and having been on a number of those planes, you know how that happens. We were on one flight over there. It just kept getting lower and lower the longer we flew, and the engines were getting hot, and when you make it, it's really a blessing. The thing that was ironic, the one time we were on the plane, it was great man, and it was overloaded, the plane was overloaded. They said, There's too much luggage; it's too much weight on the plane. We're going to have to take luggage off. So they took the luggage out from under the plane—put it on the runway. The people ran off the plane, grabbed their luggage, came and sat in their seats and held it. I'm thinking, what's wrong with this picture here? We took it from underneath, and now we're holding it—all's going to be well. And that's how it works over there. Well, anyway, they called the plane back, and so they took another flight, and they went through this city that is the President's hometown. Over there tribal relationships has to do with everything. The President then puts all of the money into his home area, and brand new airport—fabulous—so they fly into there, to make a long story short.

Ron said he was prompted of the Holy Spirit. He said, Tera, let's just get off here, and we're going to stay the night. They got off and went to this hotel, and as they were in the lobby they got speaking with this man—he was an Indian. He was speaking with this Indian, and they got sharing back and forth, and Ron was telling him what we were looking to do, and even the possibility of moving our headquarters to this new town. The guy said, Well, let me show you around. So he said they went out and got in his car, and he said it was a little Toyota. They're running around, he's not thinking much, and the guy's talking about all this. He says this guy really seems to know a lot of what's going on in this city—it's kind of strange.

The fellow said, I need to run home for a minute. He said, I'd like to take you all out to dinner. He said, I have some guests that I'm going to take out. He said, I'd like you all to join me. He said, This is interesting, what your vision is for the country and the sharing of the gospel. So he said they made a turn up into this huge driveway; it was a large mansion. He said the first he noticed, there were about ten automobiles sitting outside. He said all of them were two hundred thousand-dollar Mercedes, the most expensive SUV's that are out there. What is that one, some kind of a Rover—they've got all kinds of Rovers? Not the Land Rover, the which one? The Range Rover which is an expensive one. He said they had that. He had some exotic cars, and it's all this guy's. He's the richest guy in all of that region.

So Ron is there at his mansion, and he said, I understand that if you want anything done you have to see this particular guy, and that he hangs out at this exclusive country club. He said, Yeah, in fact I was just headed over there; let me take you over there. So they jump in the car, and they head to this country club. And there's a ten-car caravan coming out—you know, the flags waving, and everything comes flying out of there. So this guy pulls up and stops the caravan, goes over to the car, and has him put the window down, and so he's talking to this guy. He said, I want you to meet so and so from—they're here with Calvary Temple Ministries, and they're wanting to do this, and he needs to talk to you. The guy says fine, so then he blasts off down the road.

To shorten the story again, as Ron left, he said the Lord ordered the steps—they had dinner with this gentleman and a number of things that were opened up. Got back home and found that one other source had opened up from Kakamega to access this particular individual. The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord, amen? And He turns it whichever way He pleases, the Scripture says. Let's continue to pray. It's important that we receive that registration for everything that we need to do over there. Anything else without this, we're going to be in a position of moving in areas that are illegal, and we refuse to do that. So these are some things that we're believing God to give us favor, and we definitely are in need of prayer. It'll be a miracle. So pray.

Many things going on—lives being reached. One of the men who's come over to work with us is a fundamentalist believer, has been ministering the gospel for numerous years with one of the fundamentalist denominations, and he's seen the accuracy of the Word and the desire to do it only according to the Scriptures. He's come and been working with us and doing a lot of interpreting, and he said, I've heard about and been desiring the infilling of the Holy Spirit, but he said I've never received. They sat down and shared the doctrine with him and began to minister to him concerning his family situation also, and what the Word of God says is necessary in dealing with his family, and obligations that all of us have faced in relating to parents and unsaved loved ones and many of the different things. As he heard the Word of God along those lines, Ron said he was just broken, and he began to weep and just crying out to the Lord. This gentleman is trilingual and interprets at some of the college levels, etc. Well, he's come now interpreting full-time for us just to get the gospel out. He found himself praying in a fourth language, and the Lord filled him with the Holy Spirit. He was just so excited about it, and numerous things that you've heard in some of the letters that are going on. So continue to pray, and let's believe God for those miracles.

Romans, the 12th chapter. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, [holy, without holiness no man shall see the Lord] acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable [spiritual is another rendering of that word] service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed [And this is a metamorphosis; this transformation is talking about a metamorphosis. Transformed—it's a process; it doesn't happen necessarily instantaneously. It begins instantaneously, but it's a life process.] by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

So as we see this, we've been studying that there are four basic steps to the transformed mind. It has to be transformed that you be not conformed. If you're not transformed, you will be conformed. Unless you're becoming more like Jesus in your thought processes and in your actions, if you're not becoming more like Him, you're going to be conformed more to the image of the world. The Scripture calls it being vexed, and every one of us knows about that, don't we? We go out into the workplace and that vexation begins to come, and all that everyone else calls success is contrary to what the biblical definition of success is. You've got all of these people that are seeking materialism and hedonistic pleasures and of course the god of our nation today. We would say intellectually, of course, it's secular humanism, but experientially the god of this nation today is hedonism, pleasure. Whatever the cost, people are pursuing that momentary pleasure. Their credit cards are maxed-out for the pleasure. All of these things that are driving our society today, and here we are wanting to conform ourselves to the Word of God, and the pressure's on us to be like the world. And every one of us is faced with it because every one of us in ourselves, in our flesh, still has that sin that's in our members that desires to fulfill all of those natural lusts.

So on a daily basis we're battling against the sin that's in our members, and wanting to crucify this flesh daily as we're recognizing our death in Jesus Christ and our resurrection with Him by faith. So to accomplish that there has to be this cleansing of our minds continually. We saw that it was done by the Word of God. Washed by the water of the Word, Ephesians says. So by the Word of God we begin to refresh ourselves and reprogram our minds. We saw that like the Bereans that we're to be a people who receive the Word with readiness of mind. The Scripture said they were a people that were more noble than those who were in Thessalonica. So in our generation today we're trying to be Bereans; we're trying to be a people that are more noble. I don't mean more self-righteous. I don't mean that we can walk around other Christians and say, Why don't you bring your Bibles to church? We all know that in most churches the people don't bring their Bibles. So we can put on a little star and think we're more righteous. No, we're not trying to be more righteous in the pharisaical sense. We're trying to be noble. We're trying to be a people that want to search the Scriptures to see whether these things that we're hearing are so, whether it's the teaching that's going forth by myself or any of the other pastors.

We have to search the Scriptures to find out and to prove whether these things are true or not that we're hearing. None of us would intentionally try to mislead you, but you need to know. That's why Paul says in II Timothy 2:15, "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." That rightly dividing we saw didn't mean to be able to have a greater doctrinal understanding than others so that that we could dispute with them and win an argument. The word to rightly divide means to cut straight through to the truth, and then as James says, to be a doer of the Word not a hearer only deceiving your own selves. The biggest problem we have in Christianity in America today is the James' deception. We come to church, we listen to the Scriptures, we give a mental assent and say, Yes, that's the Word of God, and then we go out and live just the way we want. That's the way the majority of professed Christians in our nation live. Now we don't allow that here in this fellowship. It's just something that we will not allow.

When we see somebody who's moving contrary to Scripture, the Scripture tells us to bring to them an instruction, reproof, rebuke. We see that in the Scriptures, however, it's to be done with a spirit of meekness lest we be tempted. But we can't leave people alone in their sin; we have to bring truth to them. The Bible says that light will always dispel the darkness. So this is part of the renewing process, and we see that it's the renewing that takes place by our own personal study of the Scriptures, and it's the renewing that takes place by submitting ourselves to brothers and sisters who are going to come and speak the truth to us in love. You will not be renewed in your mind if you will not receive counsel and instruction and reproof. It's not going to happen.

So what's going to happen is you're going to do what James says. You're going to be a hearer and not a doer, and deceive yourself. James says that you'll then go away from the Word of God, not continuing to look into the glass, the mirror that James says the Word of God is, and by forgetting, or by not remaining in the Word of God, what's the Scripture say? You're going to forget what manner of man you really are, and you begin to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think. We've said that one of the things that keeps us in great danger is this—that we judge others by their actions and ourselves by our intentions. I'm intending to do right, I mean to do right, I believe in doing right—I'm just not doing it. James says there's no greater bondage than self-deception. So the mind needs to be renewed, the Scripture tells us. We have to meditate upon this Word day and night, we saw in Joshua 1:8, and then we have to do the Word of God, and then shall our ways be made prosperous and then we're going to have good success. Not when you hear it—when you do it, your ways are made prosperous, and you have good success.

That's where we left off; that's a little review for us. We want to finish our fourth point then this morning and talk about the habitual lifestyle of obedience. Your mind won't be renewed until it's programmed, trained, and habitually, without thinking, does right. It's not a thing where we have to begin to weigh it out and say, I wonder if I should, I wonder if I shouldn't? Your lifestyle becomes one of absolute obedience to the Word of God. It is now your nature to obey. That's what keeps the mind then renewed and refreshed—a heart of willful obedience.

The Scripture speaks to that very clearly over in Hebrews the 5th chapter. Let's turn over to Hebrews 5 and check this out. In Hebrews chapter 5 beginning at verse 13, "For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness; for he is a babe." Now he's not putting milk down is he? Because the Scripture says that we're to desire the sincere milk of the Word that we might grow thereby. What he's saying here, however, is that the milk that we're to desire causes nutrition and it does cause growth from infancy to childhood. But the Scripture says that we're to stop living as children, and we're to go on in our understanding. No longer children tossed to and fro, the Scripture says, by every wind of doctrine. The milk is good for infants, but its time for us to grow up, the apostle says. He says the man that continues in the infancy of the milk of the Word of God is unskillful. That just speaks of the fact that he's not an individual who has personal experience. Children are unskillful. They're exposed to things but not necessarily experienced in them. That's why we train our kids. We train them in how to worship the Lord in praise, and you train them early about the importance of the Word of God.

Hailey has her little pink Bible. She can't read, but she knows at three years old, when you come to church you bring your Bible. It's going to become a habit. Every morning back in the conference room when we get there and the grandchildren are around, one of the first things grandma does, she's there and she says, Okay, who wants their offering; who wants to get their money for Jesus? So then she gives them their offerings, and here they are now—Bible and offerings, and we're ready to go worship, praise God. Haven't ever earned a dime in their lives. Don't have any knowledge of the value of the money. It's interesting. You can hold them out there—penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar, whatever—and they just kind of pick whichever one's shiniest to them at that particular moment. No experience whatsoever, but a habit's being formed. The experience will come later.

Children are unskillful and many of us are unskillful, but God in His mercy is allowing us to be tempted and tested and tried that He can prove what's in our hearts, the Scriptures says. We begin to see some pretty ugly things periodically. Because of that we see the mind needs to be renewed. When we see something that's ugly, the first step that we talked about in the renewed mind—when you see something that's ugly and you know it's out of order, what are you supposed to do? What's number one? Abstain. Well, you know, I'm just using my liberty. I want to tell you something. If you're under the bondage of something, you have no liberty; you're a slave. Don't be trying to claim liberty and this is a disputable matter. It is not disputable if you're under it's power—even if it's amoral.

Paul said all things are lawful for me but I'll not be under the power of any of them, amen? So whatever may be lawful, it's lawful only as it's something that we can do that we control, that we are not under the bondage of that thing. Once it begins to control your life, it must be dealt with. It's now no longer amoral; it is no longer a disputable matter. It's sin, and it has to be dealt with. Abstinence is the way, then, that we break the power of those things. We abstain from it long enough to be free from it. We become addicted to the Word of God through our habitual study, our habitual prayer lives so that this now becomes natural to us, and the other then can be selectively participated in as we walk in the spirit, and we'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

So that's the balance that the Scripture shows us. Now in this process of habitual obedience and participation—through just rote, through just doing it without thinking, those that have a regimentation—you know how it is. You know that the moment… Now I'm the type of person that with the injury or whatever this thing is in my leg that took away some of my habitual working out over the last seven or eight months, caused me to see again how strong this habitual power is and how important it is. Because it wasn't even a thought—the first thing that would happen in the morning when I got up is I would go work out. Didn't even think about it. First thing, I was down there. I have all of my weights, and I have my Stairmaster and all the things, and be able to set my Bible up on the Stairmaster and do my devotions—do some reading there, and be able to get forty, forty-five minutes in on the Stairmaster—and then go hit the weights for a little bit, and be refreshed, praise God! It was just every morning—every morning for years. Then physically I couldn't do it for a number of months—four or five months. Now, being able to get back into it—but now I think about it. There's other things—phones are ringing, and things are going on, and this comes up, and that comes up—and the habit's broken. So just recently I've said I've got to make this a habit again. It's just got to become part of my natural existence.

That's how the Word of God has to be in our lives. That's how the obedience factor—The more you obey, the more you will obey. Let me show it to you in the next verse. (Hebrews 5:13) He that is unskillful, inexperienced, immature in the word of righteousness is a baby. The Greek word there, babe, is "nepios." It's talking about a child that's still on the breast. In other words, what it's saying is, someone who has not become habitual in their obedience to the Word that has to still make these determinations is a baby. You might see yourself as some mature believer this morning. You may have been saved for fifteen, twenty—we saw there were not many of us in here that were saved more than thirty years; we're a pretty young congregation—but fifteen, twenty years, and you begin to say, Well, I really believe I'm pretty mature, and I've been a Christian for "x" number of years. It doesn't matter how long you've professed Jesus. If the Word of God is not dominating your life habitually, you're a baby. You're still subject to every wind of doctrine. You're still subject to every whim of your flesh. You read the Word, and you grow by it. You're sustained enough to keep yourself alive, but the apostle says you need some strong meat.

Now if pabulum, if formula still satisfies you, you're a baby. Again, so many of our Christians today in America are on formula, and they're just happy—acting like they've got good sense. But in the natural try to give them some—go to Outback and order them formula and see what their flesh says. They're going to say, Hey man, formula nothing! I want a Bloomin' Onion®. I want cheese fries. I want filet mignon, and is there any of that triple chocolate death dessert left? In the natural they have this great mature, experienced flesh. It's experienced. It's tasted it; it knows that it's good. The Scripture says, "O taste and see that the Lord is good," amen?

Where's your appetite? Strong meat, the Scripture says, belongs to those that are of full age. It's talking about those that are the adopted, placed as mature sons, and representatives of Jesus. Full age is talking here about being perfect or mature. The Greek word here literally means to be complete. So it says strong meat belongs to the full age. Those who by reason of use—the Greek word "hexis" here, it talks about habit or experience—who by reason of use or habit. Another way is this: Haven't been proven, you've been put to the test, and you choose the Word. Put to the test, choose the Word. Put to the test, choose the Word.

That's why God allows us to be tempted. There's a lot of Christians saying, Praise God, I'm walking in victory; I haven't been tempted for three months. God's not allowing you to be tempted; you're not mature enough to handle it. The smallest ripple, and you collapse—Oh God, you don't love me, Lord; why have you forsaken me? The mature man out in the wilderness being proven what's in his heart is able to stand and realize that regardless of how adverse the circumstances are, I'm going to do it God's way. I'm going to give Him the praise and glory. For the judge of all the earth does right. The Lord gives, the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord. Not looking for the easy way, I'm looking for God's way, and that is the easy way, and that carries a lot of blessings with it. It's not hard serving God. His blessings make rich and add no sorrow. But there has to be a maturation process.

Look at this. By reason of use they have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. So in the renewing of the mind process the mind is going to be renewed when we habitually in the midst of trials choose to do it God's way. That's going to be tough in some circumstances. For some of us, it's going to cause us to have to walk away from our natural families. But Jesus said if you don't love me more than mothers, fathers, wives, children, houses, and lands, you're not worthy of Me. So in our life we're going to be able to experience that. The Scripture makes it very clear that we're going to experience different types of trials, and we have to make decisions as to whether we're going to obey or not.

One of the scriptural things—it doesn't affect us as a congregation very much because the majority of us here are tithers, the big majority, probably ninety percent of us tithe. But in a lot of churches in America today that's a problem. The average fundamentalist, I just read this yesterday or Friday and that's why it's still in my mind, the average Bible believing fundamentalist—Amen, preach it brother, Baptist, Assemblies of God, Presbyterian—the fundamentalists give three percent of their income. Now there is no three percent tithe. How many of you know that there's no three percent tithe; do you all know that? How come there can't be a three percent tithe? Because tithe means what? (A tenth.) I've heard people say, I'm tithing three percent. No you're not; you're robbing God seven percent. The reason I know this is because of the dung in your face. Don't you love the way Malachi states that? I love that. God says, I don't want your crippled and blind offerings; you keep them. Give them to your governor; see what he says about it. Tell IRS that your credit cards are a little bit over used, and you're just not going to be able to meet their full requirement. Tell the governor and see what he thinks about you. You going to mock God that way? You going to rob from God?

So the average Christian, I'm just saying that—it doesn't really apply to us here as a fellowship—but there's so much of that thought process out there that people justify their disobedience because the majority does it, because God will understand. He doesn't understand! Malachi makes it very clear. He does not understand, and therefore you, professed Christian, are cursed with a curse! Well, let's not talk about tithe. A lot of people like to argue—is it really biblical to tithe? Let me tell you this. If it's not biblical to give ten percent, then it is biblical to give more. Because do you see anything in the new covenant that isn't more. Everything's more. Jesus said you heard it said but I say unto you. It's written, but I say unto you. Hebrews, filled with much more (the new covenant)—provides and requires of us. You see, the Old Testament required that you bring an offering and put it upon an alter—the Old Testament. The New Testament requires—we just read in Romans 12—that you bring your life and put it on the alter. It wants more. I could go into a lot of other areas to show you that tithing is new covenant—tithing and offerings beyond that—but that's not what we're going to be teaching today.

Let me show you something else that's new covenant, and you see it in churches today. I just had a phone call before I came in here on the Metro line and the person says, What time does your service start? I said ten o'clock. They asked a very interesting question; I was glad to hear it. It will be interesting to see if they come out and visit us, but they asked a very interesting question. They said, And what time's your evening service? I said our evening service is at seven. And then they asked another very interesting question. They said, What time is your Wednesday service? I thought, Praise God, here's a guy that goes to church. I said Wednesdays we meet at seven-thirty. So I thought I'd up the ante on him. He was wanting to know Sunday morning, yeah; Sunday night, yeah; Wednesday night, yeah; and we meet at seven o'clock every night for prayer. Because the Scripture says that the New Testament church met when? Daily. The Scripture says forsake not the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is, and even more as you see that day approaching.

Now whenever there's a time that the assembly comes together, are we supposed to be there? Yes. In our society today what do we have? We not only have people that are not habitually in the House of God, we have those who are overseeing the congregations doing away with Wednesday night meetings and Sunday night meetings. Now why would you think a pastor would do away with Sunday night church and Wednesday night church? Anybody know why? It didn't start in his heart of him saying, You know, I am just a lazy dog, and I want to stay home. It didn't start there. That's in there, but it didn't start there. Where it started was the fact that most leaders are dictated to by their congregations' desires.

We were out racing yesterday. Real nice car—I saw it going down the staging lanes and on the back it had something very interesting painted on it. Real nice car; it said, Daddy's Money—it was a young fellow—Mom's Whining. I thought that says it. This is profound; what a truth of where our society is today. Dad's money, mom's whining. In the churches the congregations whining, It's hard—we need family time. Family time! Family time! Dad's sleeping on the couch, kids are upstairs with those stupid games, the dog's the only one in the house that knows what's going on, and we call it family time! It's bizarre! It's our culture, and the Scripture says do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together.

Now the moment you choose—let me tell you something—the moment you choose not to attend the House of God when it's open for your edification, when it's open for you to come and minister to the brothers and sisters in Christ, then what you're doing is you are going contrary to habitual obedience to the Word of God. You've taken one category in your life and said, I'll obey God except here. I'm leaving this one reserved for my schedule. I'm going to decide whether I feel like it or don't feel like it. Don't misunderstand what I'm saying. You're not going to hell because you miss a church service. But you're beginning to give place to the vexation of our minds, and when I talk about vexation, I'm talking about taking back the control of your thought processes instead of letting "this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." He who through habitual obedience was able to destroy the power of sin through our father Adam who when put to the test disobeyed. That's what's at stake in your life and in my life. Continuing.

Look over at James real quickly here, just a couple of pages over in James chapter 1 verse 25. "But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, [look at how it parallels the Hebrew passage—but he who looks into the perfect law of liberty, the Word of God] and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be [say it with me] blessed in his deed." That doesn't just mean that you're going to get some kind of blessing, and God's going to give you a new job or something like that. This blessed that it's talking about here—being blessed in your deed—it means that when you continue in the Word of God by that sheer obedience in that deed the blessing of God's presence, power, and understanding strengthens you to obey in the next opportunity that arises. "For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was." But those of us that will look into the Word and continue will be blessed in our deed. The forgetful hearer deceived; the doer illuminated, understanding that if he obeys, the more he will obey.

You see, that's what John 7:17 says, for your notes. You need to realize what the Lord's speaking in that area. He says if we do the will, then we will go on to know the will. There's a lot of people pray, Lord what's your will; God what's your will for my life? You want me to tell you how to find out God's will for your life? Do what you know His will is at this moment. Well, that's what I don't know. Yes, you do know. No really; I'm looking for God's will. I want to go if I'm supposed to go on to college, get married, buy a car. You're seeking the wrong thing. But I need to know what God's will is in those areas. God's will is for you to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Why don't you spend your time trying to conform to the image of Jesus, as Romans says, seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, preferring others above yourselves, studying to show yourself approved, pray without ceasing, and God will fulfill all of those other areas in your life.

We don't seek those things; we seek God, and He orders our paths, the Scripture says. The Spirit then will lead you into all truth. You see, one of the problems is we major on the minors. We're looking at all of these temporal things that are really non-issues as it pertains to the kingdom of God. God's concerned. He knows that you have need of these things. He wants you to have a job, he wants you to be married, he wants you to be blessed in your deeds, but those are all consequences, Jesus teaches us in Matthew, of seeking first the kingdom. If you do the will, you'll go on to know the will. Do what you know He requires of you today in Christlikeness being developed in your life, and then you'll go on to know the good, acceptable, perfect will of God.

Let me show you a couple of other things here, and then we'll unhook for this morning. Psalm 119—great passage, the 119th Psalm, about the Word of God and the life of obedience. In the 119th Psalm the writer tells us in verses 1-6—it's just a tremendous revelation—it says blessed are the perfect, the mature that we were reading about in Hebrews 5, in the way. Now who are the undefiled, who are these mature strong believers that are eating meat and not drinking milk? "Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart." The Scripture says when you seek God with all of your heart, what happens? You find Him. "They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways." Now here we are wanting to live a life of holiness because without holiness no man will see the Lord. How are you going to live this holy life? How are we going to walk above the power of sin when every one of us has it drawing on us on a daily basis? It's by the habitual doing of the Word of God. "Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently. O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes! Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments."

Let me ask you something this morning. Do you respect the Word of God? I didn't ask you if you read it, memorized it. Do you respect all of His ways? When does a child have respect for their parents? When they do what they're told. How do we show respect for those that are in authority over us in the military? We follow their directives. Yes sir, no sir. I remember growing up as a kid, that term used to really bug me. I had some friends of mine that were always "yes sir"ing, and they were the most disobedient, disrespectful kids. I was a kid, and I knew they were hypocrites. I responded to my dad, "Yeah...unh!" But I did what I was told—much of the time. I respected my father. These kids would yes sir, yes sir. It would always make me want to vomit—I was a kid. The respect to the commandments of God are in keeping them, eating them. I found Your word, the prophet said, and I ate it and it became the joy and the rejoicing of my heart. How good's the Word of God taste to you? Does it satisfy your soul?

Now there's this dangerous, dangerous thing in gathering as believers like this. It is a very dangerous thing in having a whole bunch of Hosanna tapes to where we can come into the presence of God through David playing his harp, and the demons within us, you all remember the story. Saul was demon possessed. He was trying to kill David, but when David would come and worship the Lord, Saul would be soothed, but then he would begin to hear the praises of David and how God was going to use him, and because of the pride and the jealousy and all these things, a rage would come into his heart, and he'd try to kill David.

Many of us come into a corporate service like this and we get jazzed up. We say, "O yeah okay, praise God." What are you doing when it's just you and God? Can you worship Him without the Hosanna tape playing? Is there a song in your heart? Is there worship and thanksgiving in your spirit? Do you understand the unspeakable gift that's been given us in Jesus Christ in His sacrifice for us that He who knew no sin became sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ? Do you respect that which God has done for us and in the process given us His Word to illuminate us to understand it even better? If not, then possibly the James scenario is working, and we don't know it—forgetful hearers. I can say amen when we're in church, but I don't seem to have any power on my own. You've lost respect for the Word of God.

Now it's going to take some discipline; the flesh is going to have to be brought back under. Paul said, I put my body under daily. Now you see, the balance of this thing is found in whether we're obeying to be accepted of God—that's works, that's pharisaical righteousness—or whether we're obeying because we appreciate the gift of God. Jesus said, If you love Me, what are you going to do? Keep My commandments—the habitual obedience. You see you, can't love Jesus and not be a doer of the Word of God. I have to do the Word to prove I love Jesus. I get to do the Word because of Jesus' love of me and the free gift of God. I can't do it in my own strength, but now I'm being enabled to do the Word of God because I want to, not because I have to. Now why do I want to? Because when I was a sinner He loved me and died for me. You say, But isn't that obligatory-type love? Of course it is, but it's not works—we are debtors! We're debtors; we are obligated.

Beloved, don't ever think for just a moment that the love that you and I have for the Lord and the obedience is something that's originating in us. Our obedience is a gift. Our desire to love Him is a gift from Him to us to be able to love Him. Nothing good starts in us; it's all Christ in us. When I begin to understand what He's done for me, how can I do anything else but want to please Him? I'm not trying to pay off the debt because I understand it's beyond my ability. So I'm not trying to pay Him back; I'm responding. It's a reciprocation of His love for me because what you sow you reap. He loves us; He reaps love from us once we understand the magnitude of that love. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that while we were yet sinners He loved us, He died for us, and now He calls us friends, sons of God, heirs, and joint heirs with Christ Jesus. That's the renewed mind; it realizes I'm a total debtor, but I'm a son. I can't pay Him back, but I will worship Him and contribute in obedience to Him because those that love Him obey Him. The renewed mind doesn't try to gain approval. Out of respect, I want to serve. What can I do to honor Him that's loved me?

Father, we thank you for the Word of God this morning, and we ask that these four steps would become reality to us. The habitual lifestyle of worship, obedience, study, and abstinence. That we would analyze ourselves and compare ourselves not with one another but with Jesus, the Author and the Finisher of our faith. Am I satisfied with where I am, or do I understand that there's growth to take place in my life. Thank You for where You've brought me, Father. I thank You that even this morning within our hearts there's an appetite for the eternal things. That's a gift of God because the natural man wants nothing to do with God. The very fact that there's an appetite, that we're being drawn, that we're wanting to know more is God's love for us and His Holy Spirit now enabling us to receive a greater understanding of His love and His provision that we no longer have to be under the power of sin and dominion of Satan, but we can be children and heirs.

It's beyond our understanding, Father, but we receive it by faith because You've proclaimed it. Help us to not hear another gospel—one of works, one of tolerance—but a gospel that's the power of God to salvation, free imputed righteousness, grace that enables us to obey. That's the gospel that brings glory to Your name. Make it real, Father, experientially in our lives. How do I abstain from those things that have power over me? Not through self-will. I abstain by turning to Your presence. I abstain from that because I don't have time to do it because I'm praying, I'm studying, I'm serving in the body of Christ, I'm witnessing, and then all of those other weights and sins that used to beset us fall off. The shackles drop—not because we're trying not to do those things, but because we are obeying, we are pursuing Your face, and there just isn't time or strength for sin. That's the walk in the spirit—that we no longer fulfill the lust of the flesh. Make it real, Father, in Jesus' name. Let's stand before the Lord.

As Gary plays for us and we'll take just a moment and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to our hearts this morning—where are you this morning in the renewing of the mind process? Are you satisfied with milk? There's strong meat that's available to us. The milk will sustain you, but the strong meat will satisfy you. The strong meat will bring you to a great appreciation. You see, that baby on the breast has no appreciation for what it's receiving. It demands it. It says, Man, feed me. The mature son that knows what it costs Dad to put that on the table appreciates it, and it carries with it a great price and is reciprocated with respect and honor. Do you understand this morning what it cost to feed you? Do you understand the cost on the Son of God becoming sin with your sin to enable you to experience a true liberty this morning of His righteousness?

Now to sustain that, beloved, it takes a life of prayer and study and obedience. If your life's out of order, check it. Make the decision this morning. If your liberties have taken you into bondage, you're a slave, Romans says, to your members. What do I do? Don't go play this afternoon—pray. Don't get here a half-hour early for prayer, get here an hour early. Begin to seek out the brothers and sisters who through faith and patience are inheriting the promises of God, and sit and listen instead of talk, and hear what the Spirit of God has to say to you this morning that you could once again be free to worship Him and to glorify Him and that your thought processes would now be renewed.

Let's sing it together—Oh, how He loves you this morning. Just receive that love this morning as He illuminates your heart. He wants you free this morning from the power of sin—calling you into a life of obedience. Sing it one more time and just thank Him for that love. Just thank Him for that love this morning. Hallelujah. Thank Him for the enabling to hear the Word of God, and let it become part of your life. That's a gift—just to be able to hear this morning and become one with the Word of God and say, Yeah, that's true, that's what I need, that's a gift of God. Don't take it for granted. Don't take it for granted. There's a lot of people that can't hear the Word of God and desire to do it. It's a gift; it's the grace of God. You can't come anytime you want. You can only come when He's drawing you, the Scripture says. If there's a drawing going on in your heart this morning, that's the love of God, the grace of God, the mercy of God. Don't despise it. What are you going to do with what the Holy Spirit is speaking to you at this moment? If you're determining right now to do it, I want you to know you're going to be opposed. Satan comes immediately, Jesus taught us, to try to take the Word of God out once you've heard it. You'll have every opportunity to not do what you're purposing right now. I'm going to spend some time in the Word this afternoon; I'm going to be here early for prayer. Everything possible will try to hinder you. "Be very courageous," were the words to Joshua to do it. Be very courageous and do it. Hallelujah!

Before you go this morning, turn around to somebody next to you and say, I'm going to do it, praise God. Amen. Go in peace; God's love go with you in Jesus' name.

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