All that said, we are starting a new series today, provided my fingers can actually there we go, uh, find this. It's called In Light of All This. We have been going through the book of Romans and the New Testament bit by bit over the course of like two years. And so that's my fault. The pace is on me. I apologize. Um, I'm the one who said, let's go through Romans. And if you know the book of Romans, you're like, hmm, that's gonna take a while. You were right. Uh that's because Romans is it's deep, it's dense. In fact, if you're unfamiliar, the book of Romans, it's actually a letter in the New Testament written by a man named Paul to a church in Rome. These are people he had never met before, but he really wanted to be with them. He had heard about them. And so he writes to them and he basically just lays out in the most comprehensive way that we have recorded the real entirety of who Jesus is and why did Jesus need to come, and what is it that Jesus has done, and and like who is he really and what has he accomplished in our lives? And he goes through all of this. Romans may be the most comprehensive explanation we have of the whole Jesus thing, period. And the first 11 chapters of Romans that we've gone through up to this point are pretty like theological to use that word. Like it's a lot of talk about who God is and the kind of intricacies of his nature and things like that. But then we get to this moment in Romans chapter 12 where Paul shifts. And it's like he says, look, in light of all this, in light of everything that Jesus has done, let's live differently. In other words, if Jesus has really changed everything for us, then here's what it looks like to live a changed life. And from Romans 12 on, Paul begins to describe what is what walking with Jesus and living connected to Jesus look like in practical day-to-day life. And I'm really excited that we get to sink our teeth into this. This is really good stuff. And it reminds me, as I've studied and prepared, it just reminds me how practical Scripture is. I mean, it's amazing how a document that was written so long ago, and actually a collection of documents written so long ago, could speak to our culture, to our time today, because the truth of God is timeless. And it affects every aspect of our life. And if we'll be open and receive what it says, and at least think about it, like Matt said early, at least wrestle with it, you might be amazed what it can show you. And so, in light of all this, Romans chapter 12, verses 1 through 2, Paul writes, Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is. His good, pleasing, and perfect will. Now let's think about that last part for a second. You will be able, I'll think about this as a promise. You will be able to test and approve what God's will is. God's good and perfect and pleasing will. In any circumstance in life, in any situation, in any struggle, understanding God's will is everything. There have been times in my life where I've been so confused, so desperate to know what to do, like so overwhelmed by a decision in my life, and one word from God clears everything up. To simply understand what God wants, what God's plan is, changes everything. And for all of us, for every single one of us, we have to understand, sometimes this gets cliched and overdone, but it's true, God has a plan. And he has a plan for you. And he cares deeply for you, he knows you personally. And so, you know, if you're ever struggling in your marriage, let's say, God has a plan for your marriage, he has a desire for your marriage. And if you could figure out what that is, if you could test and approve what God's will for your marriage is, you would see it totally differently. When it comes to your kids, those of you who have children, and you know, when you have kids, it's an interesting experience because sometimes you see the best in them, and sometimes you're like, they're terrible human beings. And I've raised them, I did this. Is there time to undo what I've done? Like sometimes you have those thoughts. I mean, I know you know this, but it's important to remember God has a plan for your children, He has a desire for their lives, He created them for a purpose. And our job as parents ultimately is to do our best to test and approve, to figure out, to know what God is up to in our kids' lives and help direct them and steer them in that direction. Because they're God's more than they're ours. Those of you who are younger, you're in school, students, God has a plan for your life. And if at this stage of life you could learn how to how to figure out what has God created you to do, what are you meant for? And you begin to explore that and ask those questions. That'll change everything when it comes to the decisions that you'll make and the course that your life is taking. In every aspect of life, your career, your home life, you name it, God has a will, He has a plan, He has a desire for you, and it is good and it is pleasing and it is perfect. Perfect, by the way, in scripture, usually doesn't mean without flaw. It means it's perfectly suited for what it's meant for. So God has something for you that is perfectly suited for you, for how He created you. We just gotta figure out what it is. Think about that as a promise. What would it be like if you could actually know the will of God? Because sometimes we we search for that. We're like, if I just don't know what God wants. But this says that there's a way to know it. Not that long ago in our office, someone posed a really interesting question. We'll have lunch sometimes, and and people just talk during lunch, and sometimes some of our staff members will say, Hey, question for you. And it was if you could choose someone in the in the real world's ability, not Jesus, that was the rule, you cannot pick Jesus. But anyone other than Jesus, if you could have their ability, something that they do, what would it be? And I thought about that. And I was like, ooh, man, because there's there's choices like Steph Curry's jump shot, sign me up all day long, you know. Although I'm a little late in life to really probably make proper use of that. Um but but I thought about that for a minute and I thought, like, Gordon Ramsey, uh, not his people skills so much, but I would take his accent and his ability to cook, because I'm one of those people that I come into a kitchen and I'm like, well, let's order Chinese. Uh but if I had the ability to like open up a refrigerator and see possibilities, that would be that would be amazing. I would love that. I would love that. I thought about a lot of different options for for what ability would I pick, but but there was one that really jumped out to me over time as I thought about it, and it has to do with this word discern. We just saw the phrase test and approve. Some translations, by the way, will say, then you can know the will of God, but really what we're talking about is discernment. How do you discern the will of God? I heard a great quote on discernment, and it's that discernment is not knowing between right and wrong, it's knowing between right and almost right. It's the difference between knowing what's really right and from God, or what maybe appears to be right and from God. Because we have to remember we have an enemy, and he's really good at presenting things to us as if they're from God, but they're not. And so there's a story that jumps out to me from uh the book of 1 Samuel. It's a story of David before he's king, if you know the story of King David, David and Goliath, that guy. And this one just it comes to my mind all the time. 1 Samuel 24, 3 through 10. It says, He came to the sheep pens along the way, a cave was there, and Saul, who's the king at this time, who's hunting David, he's threatened by David, so he's gonna have David killed. He's trying to find David. Saul goes into this cave to relieve himself. Sometimes the Bible's just really direct. I love it. David and his men were far back in the cave. The men said, This is the day the Lord spoke of, when he said to you, I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with him as you wish. Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul's robe. Afterward, David was conscience stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. He said to his men, The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord's anointed, or lay my hand on him, for he is the anointed of the Lord. With these words, David sharply rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way. Then David went out of the cave and called out to Saul, My Lord the King. When Saul looked behind him, David bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground. He said to Saul, Why do you listen when men say David is bent on harming you? This day you have seen with your own eyes how the Lord delivered you into my hands in the cave. Lost my place, apologies. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, I will not lay my hand on the L on my Lord, because he is the Lord's anointed. So here's what's going on. David has been chosen by God to be the replacement for Saul. Saul just doesn't want to let go of his power, like shock, right? People in power that don't want to let go of it, like that's never happened before. Um, and so so Saul is actively hunting David, trying to kill him because he wants to protect his kingdom. He doesn't want David to become the king. And so Saul goes into a cave, and if you know anything about the Middle East, there's there's a lot of them, a lot of caves. And he just so happens to pick a cave that David and his men, the men that are faithful to David, are already in. They're further back in the cave hiding. And if this doesn't look like a God thing, I mean, come on, like David's men are like, David, clearly God has delivered Saul to you. He's right there. He has no idea. He picked the cave that we're hiding in. Like, what are the odds? This has to be from the Lord. Go and deal with them. Let's let's be done with this. It's over. Now you're the king. And that would have seemed right to every single person with a brain, but David had the ability to discern. And he said, no, no, no, no, no. This is not God's doing. This is, if anything, a test. This is, if anything, a temptation. Everybody else thought it was a God thing. David recognized, no, this would be this would be wrong. And so he did not take Saul's life. Because he had the ability to discern between right and something maybe that just appears to be right. So if I could have one ability, it would be the ability, like David, to discern the will of God. How could I know what God's will is? What are you dealing with today? What are you struggling with today? God has a plan, you just have to figure out what that is. So how do you do that? Well, Romans 12, 1 and 2 tells us. It gives us a couple things that we should do, and it gives us one thing that we shouldn't do. If we want to be people who have the ability to discern the will of God, his good, pleasing, and perfect will. Let's start with the do not. Let's just get that one out of the way. This is the fun one. It says, do not conform. We'll go back to Romans chapter 12. The first part of verse 2 says, do not conform to the pattern of this world, but rather be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Do not conform to the pattern of this world. Now, we have to acknowledge right now, on the front end of this part of the conversation, how hard that is. It is easy to conform. There's a lot of pressure to conform. There always has been. There's this story in the Old Testament with the people of Israel after they've left Egypt. And if you're just reading through the Old Testament, you get to the story. It seems like the most random thing in the world. Moses, having recently delivered the people out of Egypt, God did incredible things through Moses, and they're free now. They're in the wilderness, they're kind of figuring things out. Moses goes up on this mountaintop to be with God and to hear from God, to get direction from God. And meanwhile, while he's gone, things kind of go awry. In Exodus chapter 32, it says, when the people saw how long it was taking Moses to come back down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron, who was Moses' brother. They said, Come on, make us some gods who can lead us. We don't know what happened to this fellow Moses who brought us here from the land of Egypt. So Aaron said, Okay, take the gold rings from the ears of your wives and sons and daughters and bring them to me. And all the people took the gold rings from their ears and they brought them to Aaron. And then Aaron took the gold, melted it down, and molded it into the shape of a calf. And when the people saw it, they exclaimed, O Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt. This is such a strange story. And I've talked about it before, but it's it's so random, right? Like Moses is on the mountain, God's doing all these crazy things, and they're like, Let's make a gold cow and worship it. Right? And we look at that and go, that's the strangest thing in the world. But to them, no, to them, this is this is normal. They've grown up in Egypt. And the Egyptians and all the other cultures of their world, they have gods you can see. There's statues. Right? There's images. If you look at Egyptian hieroglyphics, you can see, you know, what they thought the god Anubis was was a name they had for one of their gods. The god Ra, you can see like what they thought those gods looked like. It's always a half person with an animal head. Very strange. But but they had gods you could see. And the Israelites have this invisible God. And so when things are tough and they don't know what to do and they're panicked and afraid, okay, they they give in to that pressure to conform, to be like the rest of the world. They just follow the pattern of the world and they go, hey, we need a God we can see. We've got some gold. You know, Aaron, he's like, well, I can make a decent cow, we can give it a try. You know, I'm not sure how that all went, but there's this deep pressure to conform. They just went the way of the world. They followed the pattern of the world because the world always wants a God it can see. And so they got it, and it does not work out well for them. We have to understand that there is a tremendous, tremendous pressure to conform to the pattern of this world. But we can't do that. Now, this is a tricky subject. It's a tricky subject because in many ways, church history hasn't fared very well in this dynamic. Because when we're talking about the pattern of this world, we have to recognize a few things. Number one, we are not the good and evil police of the world. That's not our job, is Jesus' followers. Like it's not our job to walk around and be like bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. That's bad, that's bad, that's bad. That's what the Pharisees did in Jesus' day, and Jesus didn't like them at all. I mean, he loved them, but it doesn't seem like he liked them very much. And so that's that's not our job. Our job is not to be that. And I think there have been eras past where maybe the church was sort of known for that. But then at the same time, it's not our job at all to just go along to get along. Where because we're maybe afraid to appear judgmental or afraid to do something that might be construed as unloving, we just sort of throw up our hands and go, like, yeah, whatever. Like, if this is the way the world's going, then we'll go along with. We're not supposed to do that either. And so we have to walk this very fine line that I'm gonna be honest, it's tough to walk. Where we have to be people, and I'm speaking specifically, by the way, to those of us who have said, I follow Jesus. Like, we gotta remember the Bible, the New Testament, for example, it was written to Jesus' followers. Like, Paul was not telling everyone in society to live this way, he's telling people who have given their lives to Jesus to live this way. And to expect someone who hasn't given their life to Jesus to live like they have is silly. That'd be like putting a burden on them that they can't live out because you need the Holy Spirit to do this. But what we've got to do is be people who don't condone what is wrong. We see it, and we're sober-minded enough to be like, yeah, that's not gonna work out. And at the same time, while we don't condone, we never condemn. That it's it's tough to do, but it's necessary if we're gonna be people who are not conformed to the pattern of this world. Now, if we want to talk about the pattern of this world, you've got to be careful because it's pretty easy to like cherry-pick bad things going on. Like for me to be a pastor standing on a stage being like, look at the bad things happening in the world. That takes no effort whatsoever. And that isn't that is not, I don't need the Holy Spirit to be like, this seems to be going awry. But we do have to recognize, hey, there are trends. When it says don't conform to the pattern of this world, look at the way the world is trending. And recognize that Jesus is always counter-cultural. Always. Jesus is always going in a different direction. The culture that he was raised in, the culture that he operated in, the one that crucified him, very different than our culture. And he was going in a different direction than they were. And the same would be true if Jesus came for the first time today and was part of this culture, we would do whatever our version of crucifixion is. At the very least, we would cancel him, no doubt. Because he would be going in a different direction. He's always counter-cultural. So if we find ourselves conforming to the pattern of this world, we will always be moving away from the direction that Jesus is going. So let's explore just a few thoughts. What defines our culture? Well, one thing would be like the elevation and even the obsession with self. I'm a millennial, I'm the oldest millennial you can be, born in 1983. Any any other millennials in the room. All right. Okay. Those of you that aren't millennials and you're older than us, just shake your heads toward us in private. Just be like millennials, okay? It's awesome now. I'm actually, for the first time, old enough that I can now look at younger generations and be like, what are they doing? You know? And then I realize, oh, I've been that my whole life, so it's all good. Um so one of the things that that my generation is called is the selfie generation. Because we've taken more pictures of ourselves than we have of anything else. You know, like my generation will go to the most beautiful places on earth and take pictures of us. You know? Like, is that is that like Mount Rushmore behind you? Yeah, yeah, sorry, I haven't cropped that out quite yet, but I was just trying to find like the right light. Like that's kind of my generation, or the selfie generation. But but here's what you have to understand: we were raised by a generation who sought to find themselves. Like that was like a mantra. You gotta find yourself. And I was raised being told things like, be yourself. I mean, in school, I remember the posters on the walls and have like an eagle flying above a mountain, and it would say something like, believe in yourself. I'm like, I can't fly. You know, I can't do this. That doesn't help me do this math problem, right? It's like they would say, believe in yourself, and they would separate us out into groups by like, they give us a color, like you're the blue group. I'm like, I know the blue group is the bad at math group, okay? I know that. That eagle poster doesn't change the fact that I know you know I'm bad at math, whatever. But we were told, like, be yourself, believe in yourself. And social media comes along and it's like express yourself. Tell everyone what you think. Just be you. And it's funny, I was watching TV maybe six months ago, and a commercial came on, and it's like my favorite commercial I've ever seen. It's the best I've ever seen. It was a commercial for Nair, which I just think like you rub it on and hair goes away. That's all I know about that product, don't use it. But but here was how it ended. It was like a person in the mirror. I love this. Guys, just go ahead and show this this image. This is so good. It said, worship yourself. Now, no, no, don't be offended by this. I love this because it's honest. It's honest. What is the end result of raising an entire generation and telling them just to be themselves, to believe in themselves, to express themselves, to find themselves. The ultimate result is that you just worship yourself. You live for you, and you become the center of your own reality, and it doesn't go well. You know, there's there's no, it's not a coincidence that the generation that's been raised to believe in ourselves and love ourselves and express ourselves deals with self-delusion to a degree that we just really haven't seen, at least in a long time. Self-hate, self-harm, like those things are rampant because we're not the center of our of our universe, far from it. But the pattern of this world is man, whatever makes you happy, whatever makes you feel fulfilled, like your truth, that kind of thing. We can't conform to that. Something else that's a little bit connected to this is the elevation of emotion. Like emotion. We live in a culture right now where like outrage is viewed as a character trait. And it's it's not. Like if someone's really mad about something, that doesn't make them right. And so, like a lot of times our politics is just who's yelling the loudest, who's the most upset. And the world feeds off of that. Like, man, depending on on what uh political affiliation you have, if you watch those programs, it's just this group is trying to get you outraged at that group. Like they're the problem, and then you look at the other one, and it's like you should be outraged at them. And everyone's outraged, and everyone's upset, and everyone's offended. I want to say, as Jesus followers, we should be the hardest people to offend in the world. We've been forgiven of every sin we've ever done. And so, like, it just shouldn't, it's just it should be hard to get us all like upset and angry. But we live in this this culture that just elevates feelings and emotions. And so if someone is is outraged, then we're supposed to say, well, then okay, you you have the floor? No, not necessarily at all. Or if someone's really afraid. It's not that we don't have compassion for that, but a feeling it our feelings don't guide us. We don't follow our feelings. We have this one, and this was maybe kind of the disclaimer, it just is what it is. We live in a culture that just elevates sex. Like it's just, it's so rampant. It's, and I mentioned this a few weeks ago, it's something I've spent a lot of time thinking about over the years. You know, our culture used to believe by and large that we were spiritual people. And then that sort of went away. And not that we're not spiritual, but you're not really supposed to talk about those things. And so what has replaced our belief that at our core we're spiritual is that at our core we are sexual. There's many people, in fact, most people I think to some degree would believe this: that our sexuality is the most defining characteristic of who we are. Which is why you hear phrases in our culture like, I can't help who I'm attracted to. Well, because you believe that you're powerless against those feelings because, right, we've elevated emotion, we've elevated self-expression, and now we think we're powerless because our sexuality is the core of who we are. No, it's not. It's not. But our culture has put it in that place, and so it's just like it's everywhere. And it's piped into everything. And and man, especially when it comes to our young people, what they experience, what they're exposed to. Like it, it's crazy. Alright, so quick disclaimer. I want to show you guys an Instagram post that um got a lot of traction, I don't know what the word would be, um, about six, seven months ago. And before I show it, I just want to, I'm not gonna read what it says. You guys can read it for yourself. But here's what I want you to understand on the front end. On one hand, I was really torn about sharing this actually, um, and really prayed through it and wrestled through it. And so, and maybe I made the wrong decision. If that's the case, forgive me. But on one hand, it's just a celebrity saying something shocking. Like, big deal. That's happened for ever since there have been celebrities. It's really easy for us, oh, a celebrity said this, like, because they want attention, and so they'll do anything for attention, right? Because the elevation of self and and all that. At the same time, you know, it's indicative of the kind of messaging that that hits the next generation, like on a daily basis, that we don't fully understand. And I'll I'll explain it in a second. So um, this is the the actual Instagram post, so I'll let you guys just read it. Because I don't want to say these words. Okay, now this this particular celebrity has 125 million followers, so that's a few. But we have a thousand likes on on YouTube, so we're we're getting there, okay? Um I had an amazing conversation with Madison, our youth pastor, and this is why I'm talking about this. And uh, and and we're gonna take a quick detour and come right back. This may shock you, this would not shock the average 14-year-old at all. At all. And so I spent a lot of time with Madison, and I was a youth pastor for a decade. And I dealt and I had a lot of kids, and I dealt with some interesting situations, nothing like what he deals with on a weekly basis. Because the kids that I had were not exposed to what kids are today. I grew up in the era where like I started going to church in the early 90s. My parents started going when I was in the fourth grade, and that was the era where parents were still trying to like create a pretty decent bubble. And so, like, the first CD I ever got, back CDs, if you're young enough, they they were a thing. Um, right after cassettes, it was great. Uh, you could scratch them and they were ruined forever. It was awesome. And so uh, first CDs my parents ever got me were were Christian bands. They went to the Christian bookstore and we're gonna listen to Christian music and watch Christian shows, and and that you know lasted about a minute. Um, number one, they thought the bubble was much stronger than it really was. Like, I know my parents thought I was much less exposed to what I was actually exposed to. Um, but I didn't have anything in my pocket. Does that make sense? Like I had to work pretty hard to get exposed to some bad things. Like I had to commit myself to it. Does that make sense? I had to stay up late at night and like hide and and like it was like I had to lie to my parents, I had to lie to my parents, be like, I'm going to this person's house. I'm not. Well, we're gonna go there, but then we're gonna leave. And I just didn't tell them that. But that's what it took to be exposed to things back then, but now it's just in their pocket. And it and it's and and here's the point. You know, parents, oftentimes when we talk about these types of things with our kids, we're we use as subtle language as possible because it's awkward. Like it's so awkward to talk to your kids about this kind of thing. So we say things like, you know, how are things at school? Good? Any girls or, you know, like, okay, I know I'm a little random right now, just go with me. My daughter turned eight, and she had a slumber party, and there were four other uh eight-year-old girls in my house, and it was terrifying. Um, it's the first time I've ever experienced anything like it. It was so loud. It was so loud. And I'm in another room, and and the boys were spending that at other friends' houses, so the girls had the run of the house, and Megan was doing most everything, and I'm just sort of like, How can I not be in the same room? Because it's just it was terrifying. I'm telling you, five, eight-year-old girls is like, I could tell they were judging me from the moment they walked in the door, and I'm like, how do I get escaped? And so they get to talking and they start talking about boys that they have crushes on. They're eight. And I hear them talk about this one boy, and they're like picking this kid apart, you know? And they're like, well, he's a little emotional. One of the girls said that. And I'm thinking, this poor boy, right now, he's at his house playing Pokemon, you know, oblivious, just like living life, going on, I wonder what kind of pancakes I'm gonna have tomorrow. He has no idea that down the street, five girls in his class are picking him apart. And I'm like, I felt bad for this boy. I was like, poor, this poor kid has no idea, right? And so, like parents, we see our kids, they're young, when we have conversations about sex, about the temptations in this world, we tend to use very like we dance around it because it's awkward. But but when you read posts like that, just understand the world is not being subtle at all. So if you're dancing around it and you're hinting and you're like, hey, if you ever, you know, want to talk about anything weird, then you know, I'm here. Like, if you do that, just know that that is the way the world is speaking to them. And there's no bubble you can create. No, you just gotta hit it head on and be like, this is gonna happen. They're gonna be exposed to it. I gotta have these conversations. And so on that note, and then we're gonna come back to our conversation at hand, because this is not this is not about bashing culture. It's about recognizing the patterns of the world and going, like, I see it. It's like your matrix moment where you're like, I see the code, I see it. Now you've seen it, you know it. I do want to say this, and this is something we talked a lot about this week on staff. Our kids and youth teams work really hard to partner with you guys who are parents, to make sure that you don't have to do this alone. It is hard to raise kids. It is hard to raise kids in a culture that is kind of crazy. And you don't have to do it alone. And I think we have to recognize as a whole church, if this is your church, every single Sunday, every single Sunday, between 25 and 40 percent of the number of people here in this building are under the age of 18. We have a ton of young people. In fact, uh, our biggest age group at his hands is four through 11-year-olds, which is great. We have lots of kids. I hear my team talk about the kind of things these kids deal with. And many of you, you know this. I remember Megan, this was about a year ago, was helping out in the treehouse, which is our fourth and fifth grade room, and she had a fourth-grade girl who was in tears because she had been up all night because another fourth grade girl was texting her all night long because they both have phones, and this girl said she was suicidal, and if her friend didn't answer, she might kill herself. And this girl was so afraid of what might happen to her fourth grade friend that she got no sleep because she was sitting by her phone and she said she texted me like a hundred times, and she showed my wife the text, and my wife is like, This is insane. We as a church have to take a stand and say that we will support our kids, that we will come alongside the next generation because they they need they need help. They're going to be exposed to things, that this world is very good at what it does, and we just have to be people who say, you know what, I'm not gonna let them walk alone. I'm not gonna let it's not about convenience, like, man, maybe one day I might enjoy. No, it's like I, out of conviction, will do whatever I can to come alongside the next generation. And so, if that's the case, um, yeah. So those of you who are clapping, if you clapped, you just outed yourself. Um, so guys, go ahead and put this up on the screen. This is kind of a new thing we're we're doing. Um, if you're interested in helping out in our kids' areas, we need you. We need you. Our team, they work so hard, and it's not just fun and games. We have a lot of fun, play a lot of games, but we are working daily, weekly to prepare these kids for life and help them know Jesus in the process to make sure that every decision they make is grounded and connected to the Lord. And if you're like, you know what, I would love to, I would love to serve, I don't want kids going through this stuff alone. I want to come alongside them, come alongside parents. Either text his kids to that number, or just with your phone right now, you can just take a picture of that QR code and it'll pull up a little thing, you give us your name, and we'll reach out to you. And if you clapped and you're not pulling your phone out, that's called hypocrisy. Um I'm not joking. I mean, honestly, like it's it's important. So we have to do that. Okay, let's move back. So these are the things that our world is all about, right? It's the elevation of self and emotions and sex and all this stuff. That's the pattern of this world. Okay, go along with it if you want to, it will not lead to a good place because look at any study right now about anxiety, depression, uh, happiness, it's all like it's all-time highs of the bad stuff, all-time lows of the other stuff. That's just what the world does because our enemy, Satan, he he hates us. That's the desired result. When he tempts you, he doesn't tempt you and then be like, hey, wasn't that fun? He's like, he ruins you. Like he's the one who tempts and then he's the one who accuses. So how do we escape this? Because if you conform to the pattern of this world, you will not discern the will of God in your life. You won't be able to hear it, you won't be able to see it because you'll be blind to it. So, what do you do? It's not enough just to not conform. You gotta be transformed. You gotta get like, this is what it said: do not conform to the pattern of this world, but rather be transformed by the renewing of your mind, by letting God change the way you think. Now, in the Greek language, this is really interesting because the word renewing in the Greek language is this word. That's what Paul actually wrote was this ana keenosis. Okay? And in the Greek language, there's two words for new. There's the word neos, and there's the word canos. Guess which one is in this scripture? It's right there.

Right?

I know, I'm being silly. Umos means new in time. Like if something is neos new, it's like it's the newest version of that. It's like the iPhone, whatever it is right now. 13, 14? I don't know. Is that 13? I have a 12. So I know it's more than 12. But whatever that is. Okay, so that's like the new iPhone. It's Neos, it's just the newest version of it. And then there's Kenos, and this means something that is new in nature. Something that is like new in the sense that it's it's different. 2 Corinthians 5.17 says that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone, a new life has begun, and that new is not neos, it's chainos. We are meant to be transformed. When you conform, you become less than yourself. That's what conformity is. You you become less than yourself. When you're transformed, you become more than yourself. Jesus Christ, active in your life, when you surrender to him and you give yourself to him, and his spirit comes inside of you, you become more than you could ever be without him. Now that's not an overnight process. Sometimes we get discouraged because it's like, man, I gave my life to Jesus and I'm still getting thrown out of basketball games. Like, what is going on? That's me. But it hasn't happened yet. No, I'm sorry, that made it seem like it happened again recently. The streak is good, two weeks right now. I'm doing great. Um, but like it's not overnight, but it's a process. And when you surrender to Jesus, he begins to mold you and shape you. And he changes the way you see things and he changes the way that you think. And that's why, even like where I'm at in life right now, when I see those, like that Instagram post I shared or the commercial, I don't get mad about it. I'm not, I'm not upset about that. I'm like, oh man, that's that's the world that that we're living in, and those people are captive to it. And it breaks my heart because they have no idea what it's doing to their lives and what they're missing out on. If you give your life to Jesus and you let him shape you, if you sit underneath his teaching, and I really mean this, Jesus followers, like Jesus has to be your teacher. He has to be the one that you listen to. Tucker Carlson cannot be your teacher. I'm serious, like that. Those people that you might agree with them, but they cannot be your teachers. They cannot be the people whose voices play in your mind the most often. Even if you agree, Jesus has to be your teacher. He's got to be the one that we sit underneath and we listen to. And it's his words, and it's what he says. And we soak it up and we eat it up, and we're like, yes, Jesus, teach me. Because we live in a culture full of teachers, and some of them are amazing, and I listen to some of those people. But I often find myself going, you know what? I'm settling. Because when I turn on the TV or when I open up that podcast and I start to listen to this person's words, I'm giving them authority in my life in a way I don't understand sometimes. And I'm just soaking up what they're saying, and they're not Jesus. So Jesus is my teacher. He has to be your teacher. And if you sit under his teaching and you open yourself up to him and say, What do you say? That's when he transforms you. He changes the way you think, and then you begin to be able to discern the will of God. It said, if you want to be transformed, if you want to see the will of God, you have to be transformed, and that happens by giving yourself to him as a living sacrifice. A living sacrifice. And we're wrapping up here, I promise. You're like, how many more pages are in this? Most of them are blank. A living sacrifice, I heard a pastor once say, is difficult because living sacrifices have a tendency to wiggle off the altar. Like it's much easier to sacrifice something that's dead. We're supposed to present ourselves to God and say, I'm yours. And ultimately what this means is that we don't hold anything back from God. Now, this is where it gets really cool for me. And I know I've said this before, and I'll say it lots of times in my life, but I I can't believe that God wants all of me. I can't believe it. But he does. God wants all of you. He wants the whole thing. You know, and it's like, I think back to this moment with my wife. We were in high school, and I was standing next to her car, and we'd just been dating for like a couple months, and we were in that phase. And this actually happened. And Megan, if you don't remember it, it happened. Just if it didn't happen, just let me believe it happened. Um, but Megan looked at me and said, You're just perfect. It's the last time she ever said that. It's been almost 20 years. Hadn't happened since. Because I'm not. I'm not. And that's why dating is such a strange experience. Like those of you that are dating right now, it's hard, right? Because at first you're like, they seem great, but I know they're lying. You know, at least lies by omission. They're not showing me everything. Like, there's there's skeletons in those closets. I know it. And so the hope is that the person commits to you before they find out everything. Like, that's the only hope that you have. Because no one really wants all of you. Right? Like, do you want all of you? Really? Like, take a second, think about yourself, all this all the junk, and go, I I won't, yeah, I love all of this. No. There's so many things about me that I hate, and I'm like, I wouldn't have made myself this way. But God looks at you and He wants every single bit of you. Surrendered to Him. Even the most broken parts of your life. Even the stuff that's a mess. That's a mess. In fact, I'll quote Cindy Fournier, who's on our prayer team, once said to me, and I'll never forget it, and maybe you originated this, Cindy, maybe not. But God can take your mess and make it your message. But only if you surrender it to him. So if your marriage is a mess, give it to God. Lay it on the altar as a living sacrifice and say, you know what, God, I don't even know what to do with this. But it's yours. And he wants it. He's not going to look at it and go, mmm. What else you got? You know? I mean, if you've if you've got addiction, give it to God. Let him take it. Let him work with you through it. Let him humble you. Let him bring you out of it, and then watch how you lead other people out of it the same way. But you gotta lay it on the altar. You've got to give it to God as a living sacrifice. God wants all of you. Every single bit of you. The good and the bad. And he has this amazing way to take the stuff about us that we think is the bad and go, actually, surrender to me. I can do something with that. I can do amazing things with that, but you have to give it to God. He wants all of you. And if you give yourself all of all of yourself to him, you lay it on the altar, you say, Hey, I'm a living sacrifice, Lord. I am not going to conform to the pattern of this world. I'm going to tune that stuff out the best I can. Instead, I'm presenting myself to you. I'm laying it all at your feet, and I'm saying, Jesus, teach me, be my master, be my Lord, be my teacher. Tell me what you want me to do. He will change the way you think. And then you will be able to discern the will of God. Because you'll be right where he wants you to be. If you want to know what God wants you to do, do not conform to the pattern of this world. Offer yourself as a living sacrifice. That's the way you really worship. Let God change the way you think, submit to him. And I'm telling you, you will hear things from God. Thoughts will come into your mind, discernment will come into your mind, decisions that you'll be able to make, that you're like, that wasn't just me. That was the Holy Spirit partnering with me. And it'll change everything. One word from God can change everything. And if you want to hear it, you want to discern it, this is what it tells us to do. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but rather be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Let God change the way you think, and you'll be able to see what He wants you to do. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for this awesome group of people. And Lord, I know we covered a lot of ground. I guess that's my fault. I do pray, really honestly, Lord, that uh that our people would recognize the need to step up and help with the next generation. That we would be really committed to that, Lord. To making sure that all of our young people, all of our kids have lots of support. So I pray we step up and do that. That it's a matter of principle for us, Lord. I pray for every person in this room that they would hear you. That's really what we're talking about, Lord, that we could discern your voice, that we could see your path, that we could see your way, especially in those areas of life where we we feel aimless or we don't know what to do, Lord. Show us what you want us to do. But by your spirit, Lord, help us be people who passionately resist conforming to the pattern of this world. Not condoning, but also not condemning. Lord, help us be people who have the courage and the boldness to offer all of us to you, all of ourselves, and surrender to everything that you teach us. Help us, help us love each other. We love you, Lord. Amen.