Be Transformed

Turn with me please to the book of Romans, Romans in chapter 12. Some thoughts were coming to me as I was listening to the brethren today. I wonder how I would have responded to the ministry, or maybe how you responded to the ministry if we really realized that it was the mouth of the Lord that had spoken it.

Anybody here sit and listen to what was given this day? And thought, well that's just the opinions of those brethren, that's the opinions of those men. But as they read the word of God, it was the mouth of the Lord that has spoken. How solemn that is.

How challenging that is. That now I am responsible, that now you are responsible to take what we've heard and to put it into practice. And to allow the washing of the water of the word to cleanse us, to search us, that we might bring more honor and glory to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Fellowship at a conference is wonderful. Some of us came to this conference for the fellowship, starving for fellowship. As some came to this conference to hear a voice from God, what did you come for? Did you come to do business with God? Did you come to go away different? We're going to read in Romans chapter 12 and verse number 1 just for a few moments.

Paul says, I beseech you therefore brethren, and can I maybe just put this in by what you've heard already today. By the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye might prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

As a young believer, these verses were often read and ministered upon by our brethren at conferences, and I used to wonder as a young believer, why does it have to be a living sacrifice? Why can't it just be once and done? It's a daily sacrifice. It's an hourly sacrifice. It's a momentary sacrifice.

And Paul says that that is our reasonable service. And we've been reminded already today many times over why it is our reasonable service. It's because we have been bought with a price.

We have been redeemed. We have been rescued and plucked from what our sins deserve and from sin itself. And a soon coming day will be delivered from the very presence of sin.

And it is our reasonable service to be holy, acceptable unto God. And it says, be not conformed to this world. Conformed means to be fashioned alike.

It means to be made of the same pattern. And it's a command. It isn't really a suggestion, is it? No, it's a command.

It says, be not conformed to this world. I've been reading just recently a little in Deuteronomy and in Samuel, and there it speaks about that the nation in Deuteronomy is the prophecy that Israel is going to want to have a king like the nations. And they're going to want to be like the nations.

And they're going to want to have a ruler like the nations. Why would it be that they would seek to go from the leadership and the protection and the power of Almighty God as they would look upon the idolatrous nations and they say, we want that. Why is it today that when we look out into the world, it has that draw and sometimes it's like, we want to be like that.

Why do we want to be like the world? Why do we want to be like the nations? If I could put it this way, if you could be like any nation in the world, what would you pick? How many here would like to live in China? There's some here from Venezuela. How about the Middle East? How about the Ukraine? Or Russia? This verse is saying not even like America. Not even like America.

And I know that we appreciate the freedoms that we have. And there is a love and a measure for our country and for the sacrifice that was given that we could be like this. I'm a patriot myself, perhaps, I don't know.

But it says, be not conformed to this world. We're not made of the like mold. Do not be fashioned to like the same pattern and to this world.

And dear young people, you are being pressed and you are being sought to be molded by this world. And us older ones as well, in different ways than you are, you're being bombarded in the school systems and in the education places and all these things, in the workplace. It is a constant pressure to conform to this world.

The mouth of the Lord says, be not conformed to this world. But it says, be ye transformed. Transformed, that is the word that we get metamorphosed from.

And you'll think of the monarch butterfly as it starts there as a caterpillar with antennas on both ends. And green and yellow and white stripes. And there it is and it eats at milkweed.

And you kids have taken him into the classroom and you've put him in the jar and you've fed them. And you've watched them there all of a sudden hang upside down in a little jay. And that little worm is all of a sudden in a chrysalis.

And it's being transformed from that what it used to be into something far glorious, far better, far more beautiful of a creation. And it comes out the butterfly. That's the idea.

And to be transformed from what this world is. And for the life of me, in my own heart, I can't figure out why sometimes I want to be like the world. But to be transformed from that into something far more glorious for God.

Something far more beautiful. He says, be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. The renewing of our mind.

The renovation of the mind. And when you have a renovation, you have to take things out most of the time to put something new in. There has to be a cleansing.

There has to be a work in progress, doesn't it? It is a renovation. It is a renewing. We were given much to build with today.

And we were given much that should take a lot of stuff out. Stuff that has to go if we're going to be transformed. If we're going to have a mind that is renewed to the mind of Christ.

That we're going to have a mind that is renewed into spiritual things instead of carnal things, let alone natural things. As God's people. To be renewed.

To be renewed. To be renovated in our mind. By the Word of God, right? That's how we know what is right and how we know what is wrong.

Or what is good and what is evil. And to have our mind renewed by the Word of God. That we might prove, that we might test, that we might know what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

When you come to Samuel, you have a woman, Hannah. And she couldn't have children, and you know this story. And she dedicated Samuel to the things of God.

She dedicated Samuel to God, actually. Would you have trusted your little child to a priesthood the way it was functioning then? Eli and his sons were a mess. But she trusted her boy to God.

And she is a good example. But then when you come to the nations and they want to have a king, you know what it says? Samuel pleads with them. He gives them the type of person the king is going to be.

And you see, Israel didn't want to have God over them. God was... Would you ever think why? It's because they couldn't enjoy their sin. That's the bottom line.

They wanted a king like the nations because they wanted another man to rule over them. Because they couldn't participate and enjoy their sin. And they would look at what those other people were doing.

And the lust of the flesh. And they wanted to be conformed to that. And what God had made them and brought them out of Egypt was tremendous.

But they wanted to be transformed into that. And I just noticed, really just today, the contrast between Hannah and giving her son to God. And what these men and women were going to do in the nations.

He says, He will take your sons. And the king will take your daughters. He will take them.

And the king will take a tenth. Well, they didn't like to give their tithe, did they? And they didn't like to give the first fruits. They didn't like to give the best.

And they didn't like to give their tithes. And they didn't like to give to God. And God says, Listen, when you have a king, He will take it.

And you know what they said? Give us a king. You see how far their thinking had gone. Let the king lead us.

Let the king lead us into battle. Let the king fight for us. What were they thinking? God was the one that was fighting their battle.

God was the one that was leading them through. God was the one that was meeting their need. Over and over and over again.

But you see, they had been conformed by what they saw and what they were learning from this world. And that's what they wanted. And their vision was so short.

And where no vision is, the people perish. And so I'll just leave it with this, from what we've heard today. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed.

Don't settle for the base things of life, like the little caterpillar. When God's will for your life is to be transformed into the image of His Son. And God's will for our life is to grow in holiness and to appreciate the greatness of our Almighty God.

It's the Word of the Lord. It is the Word of the Lord. Are we going to be like those in Samuel's day? That heard the warnings.

That were reminded of the person and continuing work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And were reminded of the holiness of Almighty God as Isaiah would see the vision. Been reminded of a high priest and an advocate.

And to just sit with deaf ears. And remain conformed to the image of this world. We could be transformed by the renewing of our mind.

To know what is that good and perfect will of God.