Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / A Compelling Commitment │ Msg 2844

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A Compelling Commitment │ Msg 2844 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: Take my life and let it be Lord consecrated to thee.
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Speaker 1: Take my hands and let them move at the impulse
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Speaker 1: of your love. Francis Ridley Havergal wrote that great hymn.
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Speaker 1: She only lived to be 43 years old and age 37. However,
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Speaker 1: she became convicted of the fact that she was living
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Speaker 1: her life, not altogether, but pretty much unto herself and
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Speaker 1: for herself. She knew the Lord, but the Lord was
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Speaker 1: not really reigning as supreme in her life. And so
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Speaker 1: she found herself on one occasion in a large gathering.
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Speaker 1: There were 10 in the house, and they were spending
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Speaker 1: a number of days together. And she said, Lord, I
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Speaker 1: claim all 10 of these for you and for your glory.
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Speaker 1: And during that period of time they were there, she
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Speaker 1: led them all to Christ. And it made such an
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Speaker 1: impact on her that though only 37, 38 years old,
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Speaker 1: she was led to write the words of what we
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Speaker 1: just sang. The next time you want to be convicted,
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Speaker 1: look again at what you just sang. How simple it
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Speaker 1: is for us to sing great words, but to live
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Speaker 1: them out is another story, isn't it? Frances Havergal was
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Speaker 1: convinced that her song's would draw from us the best
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Speaker 1: that we have for God. Another of hers is one
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Speaker 1: of my favorites, Like a River Glorious. She has left
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Speaker 1: in her legacy a number of great songs that we
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Speaker 1: sing and often say nothing of her and her life.
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Speaker 1: The composers frequently, the reason words come out as they
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Speaker 1: do because of something God's doing in their lives. Speaking
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Speaker 1: of which, The Apostle Paul has been led now to
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Speaker 1: the 12th chapter of Romans, verses 1 and 2. And
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Speaker 1: if you have not found it already, there's an outline
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Speaker 1: that's in your worship folder. And every week I fill
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Speaker 1: mine out, and I urge you to do that as
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Speaker 1: we work our way through the text. Outline is for
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Speaker 1: my help. Someone said to me some time ago, that's
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Speaker 1: kind of a crutch, isn't it? And I say, well,
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Speaker 1: I'm kind of a cripple. And I need something to
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Speaker 1: lean on, and I'm disabled in many ways, and if
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Speaker 1: something can keep my mind on it, it will be
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Speaker 1: helpful perhaps for others of you. You and I have
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Speaker 1: heard me say before, thoughts disentangle themselves over the lips
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Speaker 1: and through the fingertips. As you write thoughts down, you'll
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Speaker 1: retain them longer, even if you write it down and
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Speaker 1: discard it. By having it pass through your fingers, it
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Speaker 1: will help. I want to do something a little different
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Speaker 1: today in the reading of the scriptures. Not only am
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Speaker 1: I going to have you stand for the scripture reading,
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Speaker 1: which we do out of respect for God's word, but
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Speaker 1: after we finish the reading out of the version we're
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Speaker 1: looking at, I want to read a couple of others
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Speaker 1: that will help us look at this from a little
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Speaker 1: different angle. So remain standing for a brief time of prayer.
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Speaker 1: Now may we stand together, please. We're reading from God's
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Speaker 1: inspired word. He breathed it out and has miraculously inspired
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Speaker 1: the truth so that what we have is God's mind
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Speaker 1: in print. Romans 12, 1. Therefore, I urge you, brethren,
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Speaker 1: by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a
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Speaker 1: living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your
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Speaker 1: spiritual service of worship. and do not be conformed to
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Speaker 1: this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
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Speaker 1: mind so that you may prove what the will of
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Speaker 1: God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
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Speaker 1: The Net Bible renders the same passage Therefore, I exhort you,
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Speaker 1: brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present
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Speaker 1: your bodies as a sacrifice, alive, holy, and pleasing to God,
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Speaker 1: which is your reasonable service. Do not be conformed to
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Speaker 1: this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of
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Speaker 1: your mind so that you may test and approve what
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Speaker 1: the will of God is. It is good and well-pleasing
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Speaker 1: and perfect. J.B. Phillips, in a paraphrase of the New Testament, writes,
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Speaker 1: With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I
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Speaker 1: beg you, my brothers and sisters, as an act of
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Speaker 1: intelligent worship, to give him your bodies as a living sacrifice,
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Speaker 1: consecrated to him and acceptable by him, Don't let the
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Speaker 1: world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but
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Speaker 1: let God remold your minds from within so that you
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Speaker 1: may prove in practice that the plan of God for
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Speaker 1: you is good, meets all his demands, and moves toward
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Speaker 1: the goal of true maturity. Searching words, aren't they? Our
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Speaker 1: dependence on you, our Father, is total. It isn't partial.
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Speaker 1: You have asked our all. You haven't asked for some
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Speaker 1: of who we are. A part of what's easy to
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Speaker 1: give you, you've asked for our all. That kind of
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Speaker 1: compelling commitment is standard operating procedure for those who live
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Speaker 1: happily in your family who know the joy of full blessing.
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Speaker 1: We really do not deserve what you do for us.
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Speaker 1: Your favor washes over us every time we inhale and exhale.
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Speaker 1: Every safe drive that's ours from home to work and back.
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Speaker 1: You've made that safety possible. Every dime we make You
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Speaker 1: enabled it. You gave us the health. You gave us
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Speaker 1: the skill, the gifts. You gave us the discipline. You've
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Speaker 1: guided us. Lord, we're yours. We can't imagine what life
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Speaker 1: would be without you. But there are some today who
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Speaker 1: know that all too clearly. I pray for them. I
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Speaker 1: pray you'd bring them to yourself just by the sheer
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Speaker 1: compulsion of realizing what is missing in their lives. And
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Speaker 1: where necessary, use us, Father, to create that hunger for
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Speaker 1: spiritual things. And Lord, there are those today in dark
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Speaker 1: and difficult places who live their lives in harm's way,
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Speaker 1: wearing the uniform of our country and our allies as well.
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Speaker 1: We pray for them. Ask you to sustain those who
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Speaker 1: carry heavy weapons. And do the work of strategic planning
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Speaker 1: to win this war. Bring them back safely, Father. Calm
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Speaker 1: the hearts of their parents. Meet the needs of their families,
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Speaker 1: their wives and children, their husbands. Remind us, Lord, that
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Speaker 1: you sent your son on a mission into a hostile world.
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Speaker 1: And before he ever turned to 34, they crucified him.
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Speaker 1: Forgive us for expecting long life, for living in a
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Speaker 1: spirit of entitlement as if we have this coming. Search us,
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Speaker 1: O God, in this section of Holy Scripture that we
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Speaker 1: examine today. Now be pleased with the offering of your people.
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Speaker 1: We give first ourselves and then our substance. In the
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Speaker 1: matchless name of Jesus. who has died and has been
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Speaker 1: raised and lives to intercede for us. In his great name,
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Speaker 1: we pray and we give. And everyone said, amen. Some
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Speaker 1: statements and some scenes in the scriptures are absolutely epical.
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Speaker 1: They're not just interesting. They're not just eloquent. They're far
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Speaker 1: more than significant. They are momentous. So much so that
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Speaker 1: as a result of the appearance of those words in
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Speaker 1: the scriptures, our lives are changed. Not simply because we
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Speaker 1: read them, but because we put them to practice. We
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Speaker 1: carry them out. I was thinking this past week of
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Speaker 1: some scenes I would call epical. as I worked my
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Speaker 1: way through a number of those familiar scenes in the Bible.
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Speaker 1: The first one takes me back to Genesis 22, where
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Speaker 1: an old man over a hundred years of age has
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Speaker 1: a sharp knife in his hand and is about to
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Speaker 1: plunge it into the chest of his son, who is
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Speaker 1: on an altar. They're both at Mount Moriah. And out
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Speaker 1: of the woods comes the name of the man who
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Speaker 1: has the knife in his hand. Abraham, Abraham, do not
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Speaker 1: slay your son. And the Lord provides a ram caught
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Speaker 1: in the thicket. As he says to Abraham, now I
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Speaker 1: know that you fear me more than any other. That's
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Speaker 1: an epical moment. Abraham went to his grave, remembering the
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Speaker 1: day God stopped him from sacrificing his own son. I
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Speaker 1: can hardly imagine carrying obedience to that point. A number
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Speaker 1: of years later, there's an 80-year-old shepherd who's keeping his
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Speaker 1: father-in-law's sheep in the backside of the Median Desert. It's
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Speaker 1: perhaps been a cold night and a warm morning as
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Speaker 1: he's caught up with the realization that the bush in
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Speaker 1: front of him is not only burning, but it isn't
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Speaker 1: going out. Burning bushes are not unusual in a desert.
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Speaker 1: Bushes that don't stop burning are miraculous. Realizing this, he
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Speaker 1: hears a voice from the bush telling him to take
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Speaker 1: his shoes off, that he's on holy ground. And then
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Speaker 1: in a moment, Moses hears an epical statement. I'm sending
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Speaker 1: you to Pharaoh so that you will lead my people
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Speaker 1: into freedom out of Egypt. That epical statement changed Moses
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Speaker 1: entire 40 years that followed. He never forgot God's voice.
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Speaker 1: Centuries later, there was another young teenager keeping his father's sheep.
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Speaker 1: Before he knows, his dad is calling him from the house,
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Speaker 1: and he goes in, not expecting what he would find.
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Speaker 1: There's an old man he's never met with a flask
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Speaker 1: of oil. His seven brothers are surrounding him, and his
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Speaker 1: father is standing with his mouth open. And he hears
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Speaker 1: the words, anoint him, for this is he coming from God.
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Speaker 1: And Samuel pours the oil on David's head, and as
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Speaker 1: the oil runs down the back of his neck, David
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Speaker 1: tries to figure out what it's all about and would
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Speaker 1: live to see the day when he would remember that
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Speaker 1: was when he was appointed to be the successor to
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Speaker 1: King Saul. Oh, years would pass, over a dozen, before
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Speaker 1: he would become the actual king of Israel. But that
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Speaker 1: epical moment was life-changing for David. We slip quickly into
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Speaker 1: the New Testament era and we stand waist deep in
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Speaker 1: the cold waters of the Jordan. The current is strong
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Speaker 1: and one of the men is dripping wet and the
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Speaker 1: other is dry. And the baptizer hears the words from
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Speaker 1: heaven as the dove descended, this is my beloved son.
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Speaker 1: In him I am well pleased. The baptizer would never
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Speaker 1: forget the moment that was God's authentication This is in
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Speaker 1: fact the one whom I have sent to pay for
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Speaker 1: the sins of the whole world. One more comes to
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Speaker 1: mind as the Apostle Paul's life is changed somewhere in Macedonia.
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Speaker 1: While writing the second letter to the Corinthians, he is
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Speaker 1: now covered with pain from this thorn in the flesh.
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Speaker 1: He prays three times that it would be removed from him.
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Speaker 1: The Lord says no to each one of the requests
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Speaker 1: and then finally says to the apostle, my grace is
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Speaker 1: sufficient for you. Power is perfected in weakness. Paul never
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Speaker 1: forgot it. It was an epical statement. From then on,
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Speaker 1: he ministered in weakness rather than his own strength. We
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Speaker 1: come to one of those epical statements in God's word today.
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Speaker 1: as we turn to Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2.
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Speaker 1: One of the men I admire made the statement, this
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Speaker 1: is a benchmark in my spiritual life. It may be
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Speaker 1: that for some of you, others of you have never
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Speaker 1: read it before. I understand we have that kind of
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Speaker 1: variance in our congregation. For some of you, you've never
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Speaker 1: heard the words of Romans 12. For others of you,
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Speaker 1: you memorized them when you were a lad in school.
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Speaker 1: or a little girl, as your mother or father encourage
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Speaker 1: you to memorize the scriptures. Interestingly, it is a turning point.
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Speaker 1: It's like the hinge on the door. Up until now,
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Speaker 1: everything has seemed to be vertical. It's been all about God,
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Speaker 1: God's work in salvation, saving those of us who are
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Speaker 1: so undeserving, who are depraved sinners. God comes to our
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Speaker 1: rescue at the cross and we turn our lives over
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Speaker 1: to him and the first therefore appears. Therefore we have
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Speaker 1: peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Then we
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Speaker 1: learned a little in chapters 6, 7, and 8 about
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Speaker 1: the Christian life and we learned about our security in Christ.
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Speaker 1: Another therefore. There is therefore now no condemnation to those
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Speaker 1: who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the
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Speaker 1: spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free
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Speaker 1: from the law of sin and death. He ends the
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Speaker 1: eighth chapter with a great crescendo. Nothing will separate us
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Speaker 1: from the love of Christ. Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril,
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Speaker 1: or sword, nothing will separate us. Following an interlude where
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Speaker 1: he describes the work of the Jews in God's hand
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Speaker 1: in the lives of his chosen people, There's a third
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Speaker 1: therefore in this great letter. And this therefore is, as
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Speaker 1: I say, the hinge of the door. This turns from
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Speaker 1: the vertical to the horizontal. From here to the end
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Speaker 1: of the letter, chapter 16, at the very end of it,
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Speaker 1: all the way from here on, it's about service. Up
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Speaker 1: until this point, it's been about salvation. Now it's horizontal.
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Speaker 1: But to prepare us for service as God's people. We
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Speaker 1: are given this compelling statement of commitment, and I want
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Speaker 1: you to look at it. I would request that you
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Speaker 1: look at it as if for the first time. The
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Speaker 1: first verse is about consecration. I'll define it in a moment.
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Speaker 1: The second verse is about transformation. The first verse is
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Speaker 1: about our bodies. The second verse is about our minds.
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Speaker 1: The first verse looks around, looks around and about us.
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Speaker 1: The second verse looks within us. And I will say
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Speaker 1: to you that if this is a time in which
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Speaker 1: you are willing to give yourself to these two verses
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Speaker 1: in a way like you've never done, your life will
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Speaker 1: never be the same. If Paul were composing music, this
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Speaker 1: would be a grand overture. A passionate prelude leading him
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Speaker 1: into the movements of chapters 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16.
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Speaker 1: But this is the starting point. This is the passionate commitment.
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Speaker 1: That's why we find Paul on his knees. I urge you.
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Speaker 1: I plead with you. Please observe that it is a
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Speaker 1: pleading directed toward believers. Brethren. will include men and women,
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Speaker 1: you who know the Savior. This is not truth for
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Speaker 1: the lost person. If you're here and you're without Christ,
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Speaker 1: don't try to present your body as a living sacrifice.
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Speaker 1: You'll keep crawling off the altar. If you're here without Christ,
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Speaker 1: don't think that you can somehow do a mind renewal
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Speaker 1: number on yourself. This is for believers. This is truth
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Speaker 1: for the Christian. Is it ever? And it begins... With consecration.
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Speaker 1: Let me define that word. Consecration is a radical. A
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Speaker 1: radical separation. From a secular worldview. To a godly purpose.
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Speaker 1: And mindset. It's a radical separation from the secular worldview.
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Speaker 1: To a godly purpose. And mindset. By the way, that
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Speaker 1: doesn't automatically happen just because you become a believer in Christ.
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Speaker 1: Coming to the cross does not in any way perform
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Speaker 1: Romans 12, 1 and 2 for you. This is a
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Speaker 1: command directed to us. These are what I would call
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Speaker 1: cooperative commands. God gives the command and we follow up
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Speaker 1: with a cooperation command. Please observe the urgency of the appeal.
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Speaker 1: I urge you by the mercies of God. We've already
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Speaker 1: thought about mercy a lot, having looked at chapters 9, 10,
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Speaker 1: and 11, where we learn that mercy is the ready
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Speaker 1: inclination of God to relieve the misery of fallen humanity.
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Speaker 1: It's God's ministry to the miserable. And you and I
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Speaker 1: who were without Christ in our miserable lost condition found
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Speaker 1: God's mercy like a soothing balm on an open wound.
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Speaker 1: Now in light of the mercies that God has shown
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Speaker 1: to us and given us, to us, I plead with
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Speaker 1: you in return, says the apostle, to present your bodies
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Speaker 1: a living and holy sacrifice. Study for a moment the
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Speaker 1: word present. Present. It's the idea of offering something as
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Speaker 1: one would offer an animal on an altar. Except in
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Speaker 1: this case, the animal is alive. The animal isn't a
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Speaker 1: four-footed creature. It is a two-legged human being. It's you.
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Speaker 1: It's me. If it will help crawl up on the altar, Dorothy, Bob, Ed, Susie, Chuck, Frank, Alice, Cynthia, Paul,
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Speaker 1: get up on the altar. Present your bodies. Please observe
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Speaker 1: it is the body that's being presented. This is not
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Speaker 1: some ethereal, internal series of thoughts. This is literally the
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Speaker 1: parts of of the body that would be drawn to
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Speaker 1: the secular lifestyle. The secular world appeals to the body.
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Speaker 1: The eye gate takes in all kinds of sensual portraits
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Speaker 1: and pictures, images. The ear hears all kinds of coarse
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Speaker 1: and profane words, suggestive words, dirty words. gossipy, slanderous words.
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Speaker 1: I appeal to you, says the apostle, that you, based
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Speaker 1: on the mercies of God, that you make a sacrifice
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Speaker 1: of your body. Observe, it is a holy sacrifice. Not
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Speaker 1: only living, but it is holy. That word means to
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Speaker 1: be set apart unto God. And also observe it is
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Speaker 1: acceptable to God and it is a reasonable act of worship.
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Speaker 1: I think that's a better rending than a spiritual service.
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Speaker 1: It's a reasonable act. Now I need to warn you
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Speaker 1: that I'm going to stop preaching and start meddling a little.
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Speaker 1: I find that you may not have the imagination I have.
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Speaker 1: And so I've been living with the conviction of this
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Speaker 1: passage all week and I've taken it long enough. My
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Speaker 1: study is bloody enough. I'm going to Now let you
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Speaker 1: share in it. I'm going to go down some of
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Speaker 1: the points that God has visited me on. Let's start
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Speaker 1: with our eyes and our ears. If we're going to
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Speaker 1: crawl up on an altar and give God our lives
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Speaker 1: as living sacrifices, let's take a look at what we
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Speaker 1: look at. Let's examine what we listen to. What movies
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Speaker 1: do you choose to attend? And when is the last
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Speaker 1: time you blushed or walked out? What video games do
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Speaker 1: you permit to be played in your home? Is it
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Speaker 1: a part of the living sacrifice of your life? What
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Speaker 1: do you listen to? And how do you respond when
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Speaker 1: you hear it, knowing that it's coming from the system
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Speaker 1: of the world? that has no moral standards. They're absent
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Speaker 1: from the world, the secular world. Right and wrong is
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Speaker 1: now fuzzy and foggy, whereas years ago it was clearly
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Speaker 1: marked and you learned of it at school as well
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Speaker 1: as the home and the church. Now you must determine that.
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Speaker 1: Based on what? Well, based on the scriptures, which are
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Speaker 1: timeless as well as timely, ever relevant. Let's go to
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Speaker 1: our tongues and our vocal cords. There's nothing evil about either. Lips, tongue,
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Speaker 1: and vocal cords are the reason many a life is blessed.
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Speaker 1: Every great song you've heard sung, you're grateful for the
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Speaker 1: vocal cords and tongue and the lips and the training
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Speaker 1: of the one who's presenting that as an offering to
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Speaker 1: you and to God. But lips and tongue and vocal
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Speaker 1: cords can become The avenue where the instruments of gossip
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Speaker 1: and slander and exaggeration and lies and coarse words, angry
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Speaker 1: and bitter words said in uncontrolled moments that can never
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Speaker 1: be taken back. Crawl up on the altar and bring
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Speaker 1: your tongue and vocal cords with you. Your habit of
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Speaker 1: regularly saying the negative thing when you are with a
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Speaker 1: group that's listening to your opinion. Bring your habit up
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Speaker 1: on the altar and sacrifice it while you are alive.
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Speaker 1: How about our hands and feet? What we touch? Where
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Speaker 1: we drive? What we click onto on our computer? What
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Speaker 1: sights on the internet. Think of it like this. God
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Speaker 1: wants your everyday moments. The moments you spend at your office,
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Speaker 1: your home, the place where you work, the shop, the factory,
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Speaker 1: the sales meetings, the planning sessions, the hours you spend
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Speaker 1: in your car or relaxing with friends or even all alone.
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Speaker 1: offer all of that as individual acts of worship. This
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Speaker 1: so gripped Frances Havergal way back in 1874 that she
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Speaker 1: had to put it into writing. Take my life and
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Speaker 1: let it be, Lord, consecrated to thee. Take my hands
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Speaker 1: and let them move at the impulse of your love.
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Speaker 1: Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful
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Speaker 1: for thee. Take my voice and let me sing always
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Speaker 1: only for my king. She had sung with the Philharmonic
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Speaker 1: and chose from this day on she would sing only
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Speaker 1: to the glory of God. Take my gifts that I
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Speaker 1: carry out with my bodies and guard me, Lord, from
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Speaker 1: ever doing it for myself. Remember, I called it a
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Speaker 1: radical separation from our secular worldview. Remember the song we
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Speaker 1: love to sing at the close of every Lord's table?
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Speaker 1: Isaac Watts ended it with, Love so amazing, so divine,
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Speaker 1: demands my soul, my life, my all. My all. Eugene
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Speaker 1: Peterson in The Message renders this. Take your everyday ordinary life,
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Speaker 1: your sleeping, eating, going to work, and walking around life
27:48
Speaker 1: and place it before God as an offering. I suggest
27:53
Speaker 1: you do that. I suggest you form a habit this
27:57
Speaker 1: next week of saying, Lord, this is yours. Lord, this
28:02
Speaker 1: drive between my work and between my home and my,
28:05
Speaker 1: this is your drive. Control my eyes. As you get
28:10
Speaker 1: out of your car, lock it up and walk into
28:12
Speaker 1: the place where you work. Lord, today, my eyes are
28:15
Speaker 1: your eyes. My lips are yours. My motives are your motive.
28:21
Speaker 1: My responses, my attitude, those are all yours. Take it all.
28:26
Speaker 1: I bring it before you as an offering. Just like
28:31
Speaker 1: those ancient saints placed their animals before you. On their
28:37
Speaker 1: altar and the blood was poured out there. They were
28:40
Speaker 1: consumed with the flame. From prayer that asked that I
28:46
Speaker 1: may be sheltered from winds that beat on thee. From
28:48
Speaker 1: fearing what I should aspire. From faltering when I should
28:51
Speaker 1: climb higher. From silken self, oh captain free, thou soldier
28:56
Speaker 1: who would follow thee. From the subtle love of softening
28:58
Speaker 1: things and easy choices, weakenings. Not thus are spirits fortified.
29:03
Speaker 1: Not this way went the crucified. From all that dims
29:06
Speaker 1: thy calvary, Lamb of God, deliver me. Give me the
29:10
Speaker 1: love that leads the way, the faith that nothing can dismay,
29:13
Speaker 1: the hope no disappointments tire, the passion that will burn
29:16
Speaker 1: like fire. Let me not sink to be a clod.
29:20
Speaker 1: I love that line. Let me not sink to be
29:23
Speaker 1: a clod. Make me thy fuel, flame of God. That's
29:28
Speaker 1: got Romans 12, 1 written all over it. Thanks to
29:32
Speaker 1: Amy Carmichael's insightful comment. You want to get serious about
29:39
Speaker 1: your Christian life? you don't have to go much further
29:41
Speaker 1: than romans chapter 12 verse 1 because the world is
29:49
Speaker 1: not only against in disagreement to spiritual things it is
29:54
Speaker 1: hostile and diametrically opposed to them You will never hear
29:58
Speaker 1: talk like this in the marketplace. Ever. You'll hear it
30:06
Speaker 1: from the scriptures. You begin to live like this, you're
30:14
Speaker 1: going to run the very real risk of being seen
30:18
Speaker 1: as weird. Weird. And you'll live with it. Now, it's
30:29
Speaker 1: not just the body, which was a jolt to those
30:32
Speaker 1: in first century who were taken by the teaching of
30:35
Speaker 1: Socrates that the body is nothing. It's really all about
30:38
Speaker 1: the spirit. Oh, Paul is answering that saying the body
30:41
Speaker 1: is the eye gate, the ear gate, the voice. It's
30:47
Speaker 1: the use of the hands and the muscles and the
30:51
Speaker 1: movement of life. But it all begins in the mind,
30:56
Speaker 1: doesn't it? No decision is made by the hands. It
31:00
Speaker 1: begins in the mind. So we turn from consecration, this
31:05
Speaker 1: radical break with the secular worldview, we now turn to transformation.
31:12
Speaker 1: Let me define that. Transformation is a deliberate determination to
31:18
Speaker 1: think biblically and act accordingly. Transformation is... a deliberate determination
31:31
Speaker 1: to think biblically and to act accordingly. You know what
31:34
Speaker 1: I love about the Stonebriar congregation? Let me just give
31:37
Speaker 1: you a little sidebar here. At our office, when we
31:40
Speaker 1: change a subject, we go ding. So for a moment, ding,
31:43
Speaker 1: we're going to sidebar right here. I love it that
31:46
Speaker 1: you think. I love it that you don't tolerate entertainment,
31:52
Speaker 1: that you're not here to be amused. You don't come
31:57
Speaker 1: to watch a show. You come because you're serious about
32:01
Speaker 1: stuff like this. I love that about you. I commend
32:04
Speaker 1: you for it. Just as you're serious about how you
32:08
Speaker 1: want to raise your children, you're serious about your worship.
32:13
Speaker 1: Don't ever get silly with worship. Don't ever get lighthearted.
32:19
Speaker 1: There's a great place for humor and you know me
32:22
Speaker 1: well enough to know I love the laughter of the
32:25
Speaker 1: Of the Christian life. But there's no place for silliness.
32:31
Speaker 1: There's no silliness. In Romans 12 1 and 2. Present
32:35
Speaker 1: your bodies. Get up on that altar. Now in order
32:40
Speaker 1: to make that happen. Something's got to stop. Verse 2.
32:47
Speaker 1: You got to stop being conformed. To the value system
32:51
Speaker 1: of the world. Remember, this is a deliberate determination to
32:57
Speaker 1: think biblically, to think biblically and act accordingly. Starts in
33:04
Speaker 1: the mind. Our age, called here the age, do not
33:09
Speaker 1: be conformed to this age. Ion is the Greek word
33:13
Speaker 1: translated here, unfortunately, world. We could call it the world system.
33:19
Speaker 1: It is all the stuff that makes up our culture.
33:24
Speaker 1: All the stuff that has gone into the culture where
33:27
Speaker 1: we now find ourselves. The world's culture and the biblical
33:34
Speaker 1: truths are incompatible. Let me name a few subjects. The
33:42
Speaker 1: purpose of life. Ask a secularist. Ask a devoted believer.
33:49
Speaker 1: You'll get two different answers. The goal and meaning of life.
33:55
Speaker 1: how to determine greatness, how to respond to evil, or
34:01
Speaker 1: how to handle wrong or wrongdoing. What about ambition and success?
34:10
Speaker 1: The secularist has one mentality. Christ offers the absolute opposite.
34:18
Speaker 1: How about honesty, financial matters, sexual matters, the whole realm
34:25
Speaker 1: of Personal and private intimacy. Religion, attitudes, the whole issue
34:33
Speaker 1: related to failure, which God often sees as a stepping
34:38
Speaker 1: stone to growth. The world works hard to keep us
34:43
Speaker 1: away from any thought of failure. I mean, that's for losers. No.
34:49
Speaker 1: I think I've learned the most in my life through failures,
34:54
Speaker 1: not successes. I've grown the most when the bottom is
34:58
Speaker 1: dropped out, not when I was near the mountain peak.
35:02
Speaker 1: So have you. It's a difference in mentality. And so
35:07
Speaker 1: I'm to stop being conformed to this age. Stop aping
35:12
Speaker 1: the world system. Stop copying the mannerisms and the mentality
35:18
Speaker 1: and the speech and the responses and the habits of
35:22
Speaker 1: your culture. Stop doing that. I challenge you to do
35:27
Speaker 1: that just this week coming up. Just try it for
35:31
Speaker 1: a day. Don't use this age as a pattern to
35:38
Speaker 1: shape your life. If you want a little help, I
35:42
Speaker 1: suggest you buy Oz Guinness' book titled The Call. The Call.
35:49
Speaker 1: In his chapter, excellent chapter, An Audience of One, he
35:54
Speaker 1: writes this. It's easy to buck a crowd, not too
35:58
Speaker 1: hard to march to a different drummer, but it's truly difficult,
36:02
Speaker 1: perhaps impossible, to march only to your own drummer. Most
36:09
Speaker 1: of us, whether we're aware of it or not, do
36:11
Speaker 1: things with an eye to the approval of some audience
36:15
Speaker 1: or other. The question is not whether we have an audience,
36:19
Speaker 1: but which audience we have. Christ-centered heroism does not need
36:28
Speaker 1: to be noticed or publicized. The greatest deeds are done
36:32
Speaker 1: before an audience of one, and that's enough. Those who
36:37
Speaker 1: are seen and sung by an audience of one can
36:40
Speaker 1: afford to be careless about lesser audiences. I love that statement.
36:45
Speaker 1: When you please the audience of one, you couldn't care
36:48
Speaker 1: less about the audience of many. When asked why he
36:53
Speaker 1: was not stung by a vicious attack from a fellow
36:57
Speaker 1: member of Parliament, Winston Churchill replied, if I respected him,
37:02
Speaker 1: I would care about his opinion. But I don't. So
37:07
Speaker 1: I don't. Truth be told, many of you have wasted
37:13
Speaker 1: many an hour this past week worrying about what somebody
37:16
Speaker 1: else thinks or says. Waste of time. That means your
37:23
Speaker 1: focus is off. It means your mind hasn't been transformed.
37:29
Speaker 1: You're more concerned about impressing or pleasing or feel good stuff.
37:36
Speaker 1: Guinness continues, the modern world is light years from the
37:40
Speaker 1: Puritan world. We have moved from the inner directed, I-N-N-E-R,
37:47
Speaker 1: from the inner directed world of the Puritans in which
37:51
Speaker 1: calling acted as an inner compass to the other directed
37:56
Speaker 1: world of modern society, in which our contemporaries are our
38:03
Speaker 1: real guides and a roving radar ranges to pick up
38:08
Speaker 1: their cues. Isn't that well-worded? We see this in teenagers
38:14
Speaker 1: listening to their peers. Women following the beguiling images of
38:19
Speaker 1: womanhood in magazines and designer fashions. Politicians aping polls and
38:27
Speaker 1: slavishly following focus group findings. Get this. And pastors anxiously
38:33
Speaker 1: following the latest profiles of seekers and generations. One large
38:40
Speaker 1: church pastor told me, I'm haunted when I look into
38:44
Speaker 1: the eyes of my congregation and And realize they are
38:47
Speaker 1: always only two weeks away from leaving for another church.
38:53
Speaker 1: God help him. Imagine the misery of that man. Concerned
38:59
Speaker 1: about who's leaving. Why? Because he wants to please them.
39:09
Speaker 1: I guarantee you some of them are leaving because they're starving.
39:16
Speaker 1: You're not fed the truth to live by and when
39:20
Speaker 1: necessary to stand alone with. Ladies and gentlemen, the era
39:25
Speaker 1: in which we live and the ones to come will
39:28
Speaker 1: require that kind of standing alone. You'll get sucked into
39:34
Speaker 1: the vortex of our age if you do not perfect
39:38
Speaker 1: that discipline. Teach your children how to do it, how
39:44
Speaker 1: to think for themselves, how to act correctly. with courtesy
39:51
Speaker 1: and good manners, graciousness, just like the scriptures teach, and
39:58
Speaker 1: urge them not to be that concerned when the kids
40:00
Speaker 1: call them strange or weird. And I know it's tough.
40:04
Speaker 1: Nobody enjoys that. When you get older, you kind of
40:10
Speaker 1: get energized by it, but when you're young, you don't
40:14
Speaker 1: like it. So help them with it. Seriously, help them
40:18
Speaker 1: with it. They don't want to be a freak. So
40:21
Speaker 1: help them know how to be a young woman of
40:25
Speaker 1: God before a watching world that doesn't quite know what
40:31
Speaker 1: to do with you when you're like that. Teach your
40:35
Speaker 1: girls how to keep boys' hands off of their bodies.
40:39
Speaker 1: Teach them the value of dignity and privacy and how
40:44
Speaker 1: not to watch the things that will weaken their moral fibers.
40:48
Speaker 1: Teach them the joys and the benefits of virginity. Teach
40:53
Speaker 1: them that. Model that by what you watch and what
40:57
Speaker 1: you say. This is a transformed mind we're talking about.
41:02
Speaker 1: This is a different lifestyle. The world doesn't even know
41:08
Speaker 1: it's missing it until it sees it. And at that point,
41:13
Speaker 1: its mouth drops open in amazement. Just amazement. Our postmodern
41:20
Speaker 1: era has removed the lines between right and wrong and
41:24
Speaker 1: blurted so that it's wrong only if you feel it's wrong. Hey,
41:29
Speaker 1: everything that pleases me, I feel is right, but much
41:33
Speaker 1: of it's wrong. It's not about pleasing me. I don't
41:38
Speaker 1: answer to a God who will ask me, well, how'd
41:41
Speaker 1: you feel about your life? Did you like it? Did you,
41:45
Speaker 1: did you feel good? No, as a matter of fact, Lord,
41:49
Speaker 1: A lot of it was sacrificial. A lot of it
41:52
Speaker 1: I did because I know you wanted me to do it,
41:54
Speaker 1: but I didn't feel like doing it. I did it
41:57
Speaker 1: out of obedience. I did it with a good attitude, Lord.
42:00
Speaker 1: Not nearly as much as I should have, but Lord,
42:02
Speaker 1: I learned in my later years it's not about pleasing me.
42:06
Speaker 1: That's what he's about here. And even if you don't
42:09
Speaker 1: know a soul that's doing this, you be the one.
42:11
Speaker 1: You be the one. You be the parent that does this.
42:17
Speaker 1: How do I do it? By the renewing of your mind.
42:20
Speaker 1: It's one of those cooperative commands. Listen how it's done.
42:26
Speaker 1: We discern what is happening. Get this. We filter it
42:30
Speaker 1: through what we're learning from the scriptures, which is the
42:34
Speaker 1: standard for life and practice. We filter what we are
42:37
Speaker 1: witnessing through what we have learned from the scriptures and
42:41
Speaker 1: we see it. We discern it. And then we choose,
42:46
Speaker 1: we make our decisions based on scriptural guidelines. And then
42:54
Speaker 1: we determine to obey whatever it is we're taught from
42:58
Speaker 1: the word of God. And that results in what? One will.
43:03
Speaker 1: Not yours. It results in proving the will of God
43:10
Speaker 1: is good, acceptable, in fact, bringing you to maturity. A
43:16
Speaker 1: well-formed maturity. Now it's time for an evaluation. Let me
43:22
Speaker 1: define that. I'm into definitions today, so let me define
43:25
Speaker 1: evaluation as if you didn't know. That's an unguarded appraisal
43:31
Speaker 1: of my own spiritual condition. A vulnerable appraisal of how
43:38
Speaker 1: I'm doing. You can answer for yourself. I have no
43:42
Speaker 1: idea how you're doing. I'm so busy working with God
43:46
Speaker 1: on the stuff in my life, the logs in my eyes,
43:49
Speaker 1: that the specks in yours are between you and him.
43:52
Speaker 1: So you've got to do your own appraisal. How are
43:54
Speaker 1: you doing? Let's go back to the word called the body.
43:59
Speaker 1: My body. Good question. Am I allowing the culture to
44:04
Speaker 1: dominate or weaken any area? That's the question. Am I
44:10
Speaker 1: allowing the culture to to dominate or weaken any area
44:14
Speaker 1: of my life? Wherever you find the answer yes, stop it.
44:22
Speaker 1: Stop doing it. Determine today, put the state down, put
44:27
Speaker 1: a date on it, write it in the margin of
44:29
Speaker 1: your Bible, stop it. Put it in your journal. Either
44:35
Speaker 1: that or it'll be another feel-good sermon that you'll want
44:37
Speaker 1: somebody else to listen to. But if you really take
44:41
Speaker 1: this to heart, you'll stop it. You'll stop doing it.
44:44
Speaker 1: You'll stop the gossip. You'll stop the slander. You'll stop
44:48
Speaker 1: the negative habits. You'll stop the lust. You'll stop it.
44:53
Speaker 1: You'll quit it. You'll go online and find a way
44:57
Speaker 1: to be accountable to another brother or sister, and you
44:59
Speaker 1: won't go there anymore. You'll take steps to stop you
45:03
Speaker 1: from doing what you know is weakening and dominating a
45:07
Speaker 1: part of your life. Now the mind. Question. Have I
45:13
Speaker 1: permitted this age to dull or shape my thinking? If
45:20
Speaker 1: I have, here's the question to ask. What am I
45:22
Speaker 1: afraid of? Why have I gotten soft when I know
45:29
Speaker 1: better than that? Why have I let myself get soft?
45:33
Speaker 1: Why do I let that man put his hands on
45:35
Speaker 1: my body and we're not married? Why do I permit
45:41
Speaker 1: this thing called living in when I know that's not
45:45
Speaker 1: right before God. Why do I do that? What am
45:49
Speaker 1: I afraid of by taking a stand on this? Take
45:54
Speaker 1: the stand. Why do I seek the applause? Why do
45:59
Speaker 1: I always have to have people liking me? What am
46:02
Speaker 1: I afraid of? Will you care if they like you
46:07
Speaker 1: or not? You're not going to answer for them or
46:10
Speaker 1: they for you. You say, well, man, I take this
46:16
Speaker 1: so far, I'll lose my job. You may. You may.
46:23
Speaker 1: You got a boss that wants you to do wrong.
46:25
Speaker 1: What are you doing doing wrong? Quit that job. Confront
46:30
Speaker 1: the wrong. Get out of that. I talked about applause
46:40
Speaker 1: a moment ago. Some of you will remember this name.
46:42
Speaker 1: Most of you won't have a clue. Screen goddess Marlene Dietrich.
46:47
Speaker 1: Five of us know who Marlene Dietrich was. She was
46:51
Speaker 1: sort of the sex symbol of the late 30s and
46:55
Speaker 1: the 40s and into the early 50s. Marlene Dietrich even
46:59
Speaker 1: issued recordings of her cabaret ovations. Get this. Two sides
47:05
Speaker 1: of nothing but applause. Good for you. That's a good laugh.
47:13
Speaker 1: Her biographer tells us that Marlena frequently gathered friends to
47:17
Speaker 1: listen and insisted on playing both sides to Judy Garland
47:21
Speaker 1: and Noah Coward. That was Rio, she would say. And
47:26
Speaker 1: then solemnly, that was in Cologne. And this was Chicago. Yeah,
47:34
Speaker 1: I want to go, where do you vomit? Can you
47:38
Speaker 1: imagine being at a home where a gal plays two
47:40
Speaker 1: sides of a CD where everybody's applauding? Get a life.
47:47
Speaker 1: I like it what Guinness says. The Puritans lived as
47:49
Speaker 1: if they swallowed gyroscopes. We modern Christians live as if
47:53
Speaker 1: we swallowed Gallup poles. And do you remember what Martin
47:56
Speaker 1: Luther King Jr. said? And they killed him too. In
48:02
Speaker 1: his letter from a Birmingham jail, in those days the
48:05
Speaker 1: church was not merely a thermometer. that recorded the ideas
48:09
Speaker 1: and principles of popular opinion, it was a thermostat that
48:15
Speaker 1: transformed the moors of society. You got an audience of one.
48:23
Speaker 1: And guess what? If you don't live for him while
48:27
Speaker 1: you're alive, you're still going to face him when you die.
48:32
Speaker 1: He's not going to ask for a recording of the applause.
48:35
Speaker 1: You're not going to check out how popular you were
48:37
Speaker 1: or how many bucks you made or where you lived
48:39
Speaker 1: or what car you drove. He's going to check out
48:41
Speaker 1: your life. He's going to check out your life. That's
48:48
Speaker 1: going to be one exacting moment. When I was in
48:57
Speaker 1: the Marine Corps, one of the enduring memories was what
49:01
Speaker 1: was called the junk on the bunk. Test. Now, some
49:07
Speaker 1: of you looking at me like, where in the world
49:08
Speaker 1: was that? Well, in the core, you put all your
49:11
Speaker 1: stuff on your rack. On this cot where you've been
49:17
Speaker 1: sleeping and you lay everything out. exactly in order. And
49:21
Speaker 1: everything's got to be stamped a certain way. It's called
49:24
Speaker 1: a junk on the bunk exam by all the guys
49:26
Speaker 1: who are going through it. And I've thought since then
49:30
Speaker 1: there's going to be a glorious junk on the bunk
49:33
Speaker 1: exam someday. And the stuff that's got our stamp on it, wow.
49:38
Speaker 2: Wow.
49:40
Speaker 1: Our Lord who is able to see through action and
49:43
Speaker 1: look at motive. Well, you can take it from there.
49:51
Speaker 1: It's serious stuff, folks. This is really a lot more
49:57
Speaker 1: important than a cowboy game.
50:01
Speaker 2: Right?
50:03
Speaker 1: We're going to get beaten anyway tonight, so we might
50:07
Speaker 1: as well live with that. Yeah. That guy hadn't been
50:16
Speaker 1: awake for three Sundays and he answers. Amen. All right.
50:22
Speaker 1: Let's bow our heads. Okay. Thank you for listening. This
50:30
Speaker 1: is serious stuff. I have a little fun with you,
50:33
Speaker 1: but I got to tell you, I couldn't be more
50:34
Speaker 1: serious about something. I care about how you raise your kids.
50:39
Speaker 1: I didn't do it all right. I did a lot
50:41
Speaker 1: of it wrong. By the grace of God, they've made it.
50:46
Speaker 1: Now they're raising their kids better than we ever raised them.
50:49
Speaker 1: They got their work cut out for them. God help
50:52
Speaker 1: every parent. Every grandparent. Get serious about your walk with Christ.
51:01
Speaker 1: Come on. Stop playing games. Dawson Trotman used to say,
51:10
Speaker 1: shape up or ship out. If you've never trusted Christ
51:16
Speaker 1: as your Savior, I want to warn you before you
51:18
Speaker 1: trust him. He's going to do a radical transformation that's
51:21
Speaker 1: going to begin a change in your life like you
51:23
Speaker 1: can't imagine. But there will be rewards and joys and
51:27
Speaker 1: relief and favor and peace like you've never, ever known before.
51:35
Speaker 1: But you can't hang on to both sides. So trust
51:39
Speaker 1: him now. Let us help you. Got a prayer room
51:42
Speaker 1: here to meet with you if that would help you.
51:44
Speaker 1: You just trust Christ and let us help you along. Father,
51:51
Speaker 1: thank you for allowing me to live long enough to
51:53
Speaker 1: preach this message. Thank you for the pleasure of declaring
51:57
Speaker 1: it before those who seem to be so interested. And
52:00
Speaker 1: I'm grateful for these listening ears, open hearts. Now the
52:05
Speaker 1: bills come to you. As soon as we walk out
52:09
Speaker 1: of this place, as soon as we crank up our
52:11
Speaker 1: cars and make our way to our homes, show up
52:14
Speaker 1: at work tomorrow, as soon as we rub shoulders with
52:17
Speaker 1: a world that's lost its way, the bills are due.
52:22
Speaker 1: And we'll find out then if we really heard what
52:24
Speaker 1: was said. Help us to make some changes that are
52:28
Speaker 1: long overdue in the mind with our bodies. First with
52:36
Speaker 1: ourselves and then with those we care very much about.
52:42
Speaker 1: So we don't wind up being a clod. Make us
52:46
Speaker 1: your fuel. Flame of God. In the name of Jesus.
52:52
Speaker 1: Everybody sit. Amen.
52:57
Speaker 2: The preceding message, A Compelling Commitment, was copyrighted in 2007, 2010,
53:00
Speaker 2: and 2025. and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2025
53:07
Speaker 2: by Charles R.
53:08
Speaker 1: Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide.
53:12
Speaker 2: Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.
53:17
Speaker 2: In the preceding message, Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. is grateful
53:21
Speaker 2: for permission to quote the poem Make Me Thy Fuel
53:24
Speaker 2: from the book Mountain Breezes, The Collected Poems of Amy Carmichael,
53:28
Speaker 2: copyrighted by the Donover Fellowship and published by CLC Publications,
53:33
Speaker 2: Fort Washington, Pennsylvania.