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REACH, GATHER, GROW

Grow - Conforming to the Image of Christ

Caleb Combs · Sunday, 21 September 2025 · Romans 8:29 · 47:11 · 7,027 words

Romans S22 · 8:29 Holly

There is no public page for this message yet — the transcript below is the whole of it.

Conforming to the image of Christ is the focus, based on Romans 8:29–30 where Paul says God predestined believers to be conformed to the image of His Son. Pastor Caleb calls this a lifelong process of sanctification, led by the Holy Spirit, that reshapes thoughts, speech, and actions. He urges listeners to reject worldly idols, pursue Christ passionately, and let the Spirit change their relationships and choices. The ask is to cooperate with the Spirit, grow in grace, and imitate Christ daily.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

conform 60 emulate 11 christ 86 imitate 12 difficulty 18 hey 34 sanctify 11 responsibility 12 trammell 4 respond 12 passion 11 alan 4

Topics

Prayer 6 Faith 4 Sanctification 3 Election & Predestination 2 Suffering 2 Justification 2 The Holy Spirit 2 Righteousness 1 The Gospel 1 Death & Resurrection 1 Grace 1

Scripture referenced 8

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 8 2:53 Romans 8:29-30 6:33 Romans 8:29 6:42 Romans 12 15:27 Philippians 3 24:29 Romans 7 27:09 2 Corinthians 3 27:35 John 1 34:29

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 10 lines, 0:39. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

Hey everyone, my name is Grant Grimes and thanks for checking out this message today.

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Thanks again for joining us and we hope you are blessed by today's message.

Good morning, good to sing with you and take a few moments of reflection and just meditation

on the goodness of God and His sovereignty and just how much He has blessed us.

And so it's always great to take some time to do that.

And so if I don't know you, I want to welcome you.

My name is Caleb, I'm the pastor here and it's, you take the next few minutes.

I want to open God's word to see what He has for us and kind of digest and teach and

hope to be led by the Holy Spirit to see what He has for us as a whole.

And so excited to be able to do that.

We have, if you've noticed, we've tried to mix in now some announcement videos over the

last few weeks, actually several months, not a few weeks.

We wanted to bring you on site of some of the things that we're doing.

And so we brought you on our single moms and widows oil change.

It's just a great thing.

It's just a great event.

We had to break it up to two different Saturdays because we've had so much need.

And we want you to know that that is entirely free for the single moms and widows.

And so they sign up and then we change their oil, change it.

They change their oil.

They change their breaks.

Some of you guys like you do that.

No, I do not.

It's not close.

And so it's a great, great crew to be able to do that.

Some faithful men and women that have been doing it for 10, 20 plus years, spending time

with them.

Praying for them.

And so I'm just excited about that.

And so we wanted to bring you there.

And so the edits of the video were pretty funny because as Josh is talking, somebody is hammering

I mean, it's like you can hear a little bit of it.

We had to cut part of it.

Like it was great.

And so just, it just, we believe that is so much needed, just influential, intimate,

authentic ministry.

And so those kinds of things.

And we, so we want to bring you a part of those.

And so we'll be mixing it up.

We'll be mixing those in.

Hopefully you're enjoying them.

We're enjoying doing them.

And I know many of you are part of that ministry as well.

We are going to continue in our series on Romans.

And so if you have a Bible, a device, we're going to be in Romans chapter eight this morning.

We've taken a little bit of, not pause, but a little different look at the book of Romans

over the last couple of weeks, pairing it to our vision of reaching the world, gathering

with the saints.

And growing in God's word.

And so a few weeks ago, we looked at loving the lost, having a heartbeat and a love for

people that don't know Christ as their savior.

That should be at the forefront of what we do as representing Jesus Christ.

We are ambassadors for him, lights in a dark world.

And so I know I don't have to pretend that here this morning.

We know we live in a broken system.

We know we live in a broken world and God has given.

He's given us a light and a hope that we can long for.

And we get to cast that light out the best we can, not perfectly, but intentionally through

different ministry that we can do and live out.

Last week, we talked about encouragement.

I'll tell you this.

I loved being able to be able to preach on encouragement.

Hopefully you were encouraged.

I know I was encouraged.

I received many texts and emails saying, pastor, did you need encouragement?

No, I just.

This was at a crux of where we're at.

And so I'm good.

And so you're like, Hey, just want to, but I always encourage, I'm always encouraged with prayer.

And so words of affirmation are great.

And so I believe that is for one another.

Hopefully, and I say this very intentionally, hopefully as you came this morning, you considered

how you can encourage someone.

All right.

Not just simply.

All right.

That was a Sunday checkbox.

We crossed that off and now we will continue on.

No, realizing there is someone in your row today that could use encouragement.

Really?

That's not a, like, I think I guarantee you there's someone in this row or in your row,

someone in your section, someone that you'll run into the lobby that could use encouragement.

You're like, uh,

what does that look like? Well, listen to last week's message if you missed it. But I gave you

some practical things. So words, actions, encouragement, prayer, accountability, those are

all really important. And so I want to encourage you to be a part of being encouragement to one

another. And so super valuable. This morning, we are going to look at the idea, the concept of

discipleship, growth in the book of Romans. If you know anything about Paul's writings,

Paul's letters to these churches or to individuals, this is very much a heartbeat or a drum that he

is pounding throughout most of his letters. If you look at some themes that he's referencing

in Romans, or you look at Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, any of these written

Or letters to the churches. Paul is constantly saying, hey, be united, avoid false teaching,

and grow in your knowledge and understanding of Jesus Christ. Grow in your love for him. And so

it's very much digesting. I love when he tells Timothy, show everyone your progress. Your progress

for receiving the word of God, receiving the Holy Spirit, and then growing, not just simply being

tied or stagnant in your knowledge, but grow in it and seek first the kingdom of God. And so

this morning, I want to read Romans 8 verses 29 through 30. Excuse me. And then we're going to

look at the idea of conforming to Christ, conforming to Christ. Romans 8 verse 29 said,

for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of a son, in order that

he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called.

And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. Let's

pray and we'll talk about this idea this morning. God, we love you. We praise you. Thank you for this

morning. Thank you for your word. Thank you for able to sing that your promises are true. They're

yes and amen. As we know, we're going to pray for you. We're going to pray for you. We're going to

we know they are guarantees, not maybes, not I'm not sure, but guarantees. God, we know you said

that you are here this morning where two or more are gathered. We know that your word is fact and

true and errorless. God, we know that. God, we know that we have hope found in your son, Jesus Christ,

because of your great love for us. God, another truth. God, we pray those truths,

not as reminders to you, but to reminders to us.

God, as we this morning open your word, may we hear from you. May your Holy Spirit guide,

convict, correct, lead us. That's our prayer, God. I thank you for what you've already done.

Thank you for what you're going to do. God, thank you for the privilege,

privilege of preaching about you. It's a high honor. God, I praise you. I love you. In Jesus'

wonderful name. Amen. When I was growing up, I loved to play Little League baseball, loved to

play baseball. And I was a little kid, and I loved to play baseball. And I was a little kid, and I

the Tigers were good then. Sorry. Sorry, Larry, that was for you. But they had a shortstop named

Alan Trammell. And so it shows a little bit of my age. Some of you are younger. You're like,

you have no idea who that is. Some of you are older. You're like, well, let's start talking

about Al Kaline. No, that's too old for me. Okay. All right. And so intermix it. And other years,

you're like, I don't even know who you're talking about. Just stay with me. All right.

And so I loved Alan Trammell, played shortstop. And so I grew up.

So emulating Alan Trammell. And so everything that he did, his swing, how he walked into the

batter's box. I watched this as a kid. This was before YouTube for all you youngers that you had

to watch it on TV and you couldn't record it. And so you had to watch it the next game. And so I

loved watching Alan Trammell, the way he fielded a ball and the way he ran to the bases and just

even running onto the field. I began to, it was a passion that like, man, I love the Tigers. I love

to emulate him. As I got older, my love for baseball began to be a love for basketball.

And so there was a guy that played for the Sacramento Kings named Jason Williams. All

right. And so his name was White Chocolate, if you want to go with that.

And so as a point guard, and I watched how he played, I had an opportunity to meet him

once and just as a kid, I watched how he played basketball and I wanted to be like him and

I wanted to emulate him.

I wanted to act like him.

Even a little bit of Isaiah Thomas had to mix that Detroit style in that.

But I had these passions and I wanted to emulate or I wanted to, I use the word in the scripture,

conform to these images because I wanted to accomplish a passion.

Nike put out a commercial years ago, or Nike or Gatorade, I can remember, be like Mike,

right?

As a Detroiter, we didn't want to be like Michael Jordan, right?

But the whole world was seeing this man achieve all these great things.

And so they put out a commercial, not just a single commercial, but a whole single, a

whole progress of, hey, be like Mike.

Because if you're like Mike, you'll be like fill in the blank, champion.

You'll.

You'll, you'll, you'll have all of these status things and you'll accomplish.

What's interesting about this is I believe athletics, I believe the world, I believe

like even advertisement has tapped into a desire for humanity where they see a passion

of something and they automatically go, hey, I want to be like this.

I want to be like that.

I see that success of this person.

You may be in engineering and you see this.

This man or this woman achieving a lot.

And you're like, hey, I want to be like that.

Or I see this, this married couple.

Well, I want to be like that.

It's interesting how in our hearts and in our brains, we see something to go like, hey,

I want to emulate that because I want what they have.

In this passage, Paul is challenging the Christians in Rome, and I believe challenging you and

I to not conform to the.

Things of this world, not a form conformed to the idols of our culture, but ultimately

conformed to Christ or emulate Christ.

Be like Jesus.

In Romans eight, Paul uses these, these words for new and predestined.

We're going to get to more of that in Romans nine.

And so it was great when Pastor Roy threw me under the bus a couple of weeks ago.

I didn't get any emails, by the way.

But super pumped to be able to.

Talk through the idea of foreknowing and predestined.

Quick explanation.

I believe God knows all things.

All right.

And I believe his will is for all to be saved while balancing choice and revealing his call

for us.

We're going to, we're going to get to some of this churches split over this verse, by

the way, right?

There's the big crux of, of division in church.

That's not what we're going to do.

We're going to really lean into looking to see what scripture has to say.

And.

Also going, Hey, you know what?

I differ on some of this.

This is not a major and that's okay.

We'll get to that in a couple of weeks.

But this morning I want to look at the idea of conforming to the image of Jesus Christ

to emulating Christ, to looking, acting, responding, living like Jesus to conform is to become

like, or be similar to, to conform to Christ is the idea.

The idea of becoming like Jesus in character, action, spirit, spiritual formation, driven

and inspired, corrected by the Holy spirit, transforming our lives.

You've heard me use this word and I don't want to just flippantly use it, but to be

sanctified, to look more like Christ.

That simply means the Holy spirit comes to live inside of me and is molding me, shaping

me to look more like Jesus.

And that is so important is we are unable, and I'll get to this in a few minutes to conform

our lives to Christ without the works of the Holy spirit.

We can't do it on our own.

However, we have to also be responsible on our own to respond to the beckoning call,

the shaping of the Holy spirit.

And so in that sanctification process, I seek to be holy, not perfect.

But I seek to be like holy because Christ was holy.

I seek to respond and act, talk, think, live like Jesus.

And so I don't want to just flip me like, Hey, I've been, I haven't been a part of

And that the word is a big word of sanctification.

sanctified. I wanted to take a few moments to explain that because it is so important. Simply

the process of becoming more like Christ. And so this morning we begin to look at this idea or this

call or this pursuit of conforming to Christ. Paul multiple times tells us not to be conformed. Even

Peter in first Peter tells us to not conform to the evils of this world. Romans 12 too. I feel

like I have stepped on this a bunch. Well, but it's so good. Do not be conformed to this world,

but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. When's that renewing happen? At justification,

at salvation, beginning of the Roman series. I introduced these truths and these concepts. We

took some,

time to define them because it was so important. It is truly important. Justified. God views me

just as if I had never sinned. I've been saved by the very grace of God. I cannot justify myself

only by the work of Christ. My works can't qualify me there. God, through your great grace and your

mercy, you made me a child of God. And a beautiful process of justification. Paul in this passage and

really his writing gives us,

two ways to conform to Christ. The first way is not very popular. The second way is also not very

popular. Wow. That's really good. Good message this morning. All right. That was a joke for some

of you. All right. I know it's raining. It's okay. We'll be, we'll get through this day. I promise.

The first, first way is to conform to Christ. Paul in Philippians and Philippians three shares it.

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth,

of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count

them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness

of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness

from God that depends on faith. First stands very, very clear that I may know him and the power of

his resurrection. All right. Conforming is part, partially knowing. I know what I'm trying to be,

but then he continues that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his

sufferings becoming like him in his death. No amens, right? That's like, Hey, I want to conform

to Christ. Paul says, Hey, I want to be like Christ. I want to know him. I want to experience

him. I want to know what he's going through. And

guess what? I want to go through tough times. That's not a popular message, by the way.

I knew it wouldn't be. That's okay. I'm half joking, but half true. That's not something like,

Hey, you know what? Everyone, we want to be like Jesus. So we're going to have a terrible week,

right? There's nobody in here like, Hey, amen. That is, I'm with that guy. No, everyone's like,

Hey, how about the guy down the road? That's already struggling. Let me have a good week.

I had my bad week last week. True, right? But the reality of Paul's teaching is he's saying,

Jesus suffered as Jesus was crucified as Jesus. Let's take it even a step further as Jesus was

not of this world as Jesus's identity, his hope, his foundation, everything was, as Paul says,

it was rubbish in this world. I want my truth, my identity, my future, my cornerstone,

everything to be founded in Christ and in eternal things. And then when I go through,

difficulties, I will be able to understand the very sufferings of Christ. And so knowing what

Christ went through, knowing that he was beaten, mocked, arrested for standing for truth. And I

know we live in a culture and a world that I would say is a very crossroads, especially American

culture, very crossroads of what is truly happening in our culture. Guess what? Church, if you're going

And for truth, you will suffer for it.

If you stand for truth, there's a young man's funeral in Arizona today.

He stood for truth and he was killed for it.

And I'm not saying, hey, you'll be martyred for the very truth.

But the fact of the reality is in sufferings, the suffering comes from standing on foundational

truth and the truth comes from the word of God, not what we think, what we desire, what

we want, what the Holy Spirit guides us, leads us into.

And so we understand that very truth in our lives that, yes, I may suffer at some point.

Yeah, in American culture, we may not suffer like another country, but there may be some

financial give up in your life.

There may be some difficulty.

You may lose a job.

You may not have relationships because people go, hey, I don't like the truth that you stand

for.

And guess what?

That's why we conform to Christ.

I'm conformed to Christ because he suffered.

And you know what?

I seek to, and I don't know if this sounds, I have even a hard time saying, I seek to

suffer like Christ.

And like, it's a tough prayer to pray.

If we're honest, like, let's be honest this morning, right?

Hey, you know what?

God, I seek to suffer like you.

No, no, I like to have some good things in my life.

Love difficulty.

I like, I like when the, like when things don't break and everything is good and I don't

have any, those days are the best days.

But the reality is, is as James says, count it all joy.

When you face it.

Face trials of all kinds.

And so when those difficulties in those sufferings, they bring us to a place of reliance and hope

on Jesus Christ.

And I want you to know this.

That's okay.

That's okay.

And so wherever you find yourself, I know that the prosperity gospel, and I hate even

tying those two things together because they, they're actually oxymorons.

Not the people, but the truth, right?

This idea of like, no, no, the prosperity, no, the gospel is saying I'm giving up self.

I'm taking up my cross and following you.

And whatever the future is, whatever my, whatever happens in my life, God, I trust you.

And so in those difficulties, in those seasons of, of rain or in that valley, we know Christ

is with us.

I preached that last week, the idea of encouragement in those difficult seasons.

And for us to really grasp and understand, yes, Paul says, Hey, I'll conform to Christ

by in those difficulties, even becoming like him in his death.

And Paul says, Hey, I'll conform to Christ by in those difficulties, even becoming like him in his death.

And Paul says, Hey, I'll conform to Christ by in those difficulties, even becoming like him in his death.

And Paul says, Hey, I'll conform to Christ by in those difficulties, even becoming like him in his death.

And Paul says, Hey, I'll conform to Christ by in those difficulties, even becoming like him in his death.

And Paul says, Hey, I'll conform to Christ by in those difficulties, even becoming like him in his death.

And Paul says, Hey, I'll conform to Christ by in those difficulties, even becoming like him in his death.

And Paul says, Hey, I'll conform to Christ by in those difficulties, even becoming like him in his death.

And Paul says, Hey, I'll conform to Christ by in those difficulties, even becoming like him in his death.

And Paul says, Hey, I'll conform to Christ by in those difficulties, even becoming like him in his death.

And Paul says, Hey, I'll conform to Christ by in those difficulties, even becoming like him in his death.

was ultimately martyred.

One, he conformed in sharing suffering with Christ.

And two, is imitation or imitating Christ.

I have three children.

I have an almost 17-year-old, an almost 14-year-old, and an almost 5-year-old.

Tell me why we had all the kids in about six weeks.

I have no idea, by the way.

It's an expensive time for birthdays.

But my 4-year-old is a professional imitator.

All right?

I was walking to a football game, holding her hand and talking to her.

And she...

Maybe your kids didn't do this.

Well, mine kids, they're good exasperators.

They get it from their mom, by the way.

I want you to know that.

Not true.

It's me.

All right?

But she started to repeat everything I said.

Did it happen in your home?

Just my home?

Okay.

All right.

I'll repent, by the way.

All right?

And so she started to repeat.

And so we're like, All right.

So she does this all the time.

It's great.

But what is she doing?

She's imitating.

Right?

She's...

Hey, whatever you said, I'm going to...

I'm going to imitate it.

I'm going to repeat it.

I'm going to act it out.

And that's really, truly what we've been called to do as believers.

Imitate Christ.

Speak like Christ.

Act like Christ.

Walk like Christ.

Respond like Christ.

Think like Jesus.

Paul, in Philippians 3, even takes it one step further.

He says, Brothers, join in imitating me.

Keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.

Paul said, Hey, imitate me because I'm imitating Christ.

Or seeking to imitate Christ.

For many of whom I have often told you, and I'll tell you even with tears,

walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.

Their end is destruction.

Their God is their belly.

and they glory in their shame with their minds set on here it is earthly things the things of

this world but our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await a savior the lord jesus christ

who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even

to subject all things to himself what is paul saying hey we seek to imitate christ act like

christ i shared it just at the beginning what does conforming look like it's our character action

our spirit everything about us is to look like jesus a few minutes ago i i described becoming

more like christ not on our own but with divine power and fulfillment of human responsibility

to be sanctified to look like jesus hopefully this morning as you've walked through these doors or

click down a link in the description below if you have any questions or if you have any questions

i'll link wherever you find yourself looking at this idea and and we're all in agreement i want

to look like christ i want to act like christ wherever you find yourself you're like man who

is this jesus guy well we believe he is and was the hope for the world we believe he is our savior

we believe we have nothing without him it's the gospel the good news of jesus realizing

we were dead lost in our sin yet in god's grace he sent jesus to die in the name of jesus

the cross for our sins and we want to we want to he lived a perfect life died and then rose again

and is coming back again that's the the gospel the good news of jesus and for us as church as

christians as men and women we want to emulate christ we want to conform to him but we're unable

to do it on our own first a few weeks ago of paul describing in romans 7 of doing the things that

which he hates he responds and acts and does things that he hates and does things that he hates and

i don't understand why i do these things and i realize that that flesh and spirit are in

in an inner fight of me but the truth of the matter is we cannot be sanctified or conformed

to christ without divine power or leading of the holy spirit second corinthians chapter three

and we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the lord are being transformed you want to be

are being sanctified into the same image with one degree of glory to one another

for this comes from the lord who is the spirit it's the power it's divine power the holy spirit

shaping molding us in this process called sanctification you notice i say if you've been

here at all i in my opening prayer i always pray for the very correction of the holy spirit i don't

necessarily just pray that for you by the way that's prayed for me i know i need it i know

my actions my responses my thoughts i need correction

again not a popular topic or sermon in our world but the the truth of the matter is i know i'm broken

and i need the very hand of god to pull me out of the junk the miry clay the all the the stuff in my

life to live and look more like him so he's conforming us he's molding us the bible describes

we are the clay in the potter's hand and he's shaping us to be in the very image of him some

of that is easy some of that is painful

we can talk about pruning in our lives if you know anything about pruning which i don't i've

done it all by research but you prune trees and bushes to help them grow but most of the time

when something is pruned it looks like it was dead right why did you just kill the tree why

did you just kill the bush ultimately bring better growth some of that needs to happen in our lives

and so this divine power the holy spirit shaping us molding us into what we should look

like great thing about philippians one and i am sure of this that he began a good work in you

he began the work will bring it to completion at the day of jesus christ he's molding me shaping me

me to be what I'm supposed to be. I'm being sanctified every day of my life. And I know

that I need it. Guess what? You do too. Every one of us does. And our faults and our failures and

our sin, he's going, hey, I'm molding you, shaping you, bringing people in your life to ultimately

bring you to completion. You can't do it on your own. He's going to do it. He's going to bring it

to completion. What does he say? On his return, we cannot be, I use this word, glorified until he

comes back. You're in a new body in heaven. And so that sanctification process is ever working

in your life. So we have divine power, but it's not simply just divine power for us to conform

to Christ. I wish it was. See, I believe there is also human responsibility. This is huge in our

culture today, taking responsibility for our actions, not blaming other things. I tell my kids

all the time, you want to get me worked up, blame something else. Take responsibility. It's okay. I

said, leaders take responsibility. There's nothing wrong with, hey, I'm going to take

responsibility for my actions and I'm going to seek to change them. And so there is human

responsibility. Great about this is, yeah, divine power by the Holy Spirit working in our lives,

but also our growth is personal responsibility, not just simply someone else's. Like it's the

pastor's responsibility to help me grow, right? You've heard that? You've thought it? Maybe it's

you said it. I'm a part of that process. I want to shepherd and help for each and every one of us is

taking personal responsibility for growing in our knowledge and our understanding and our

conforming to the image of Christ. I read this this week. It's really good. We cannot grow to

be like someone we don't know. The deeper our knowledge of Christ, the deeper our understanding

of him, the more we become like him. I'm going to repeat that again because it's convicting.

We cannot grow to be like someone we don't know. We cannot grow to be like him. We cannot grow to be

someone like we, we cannot grow to be like someone we don't know. The deeper our knowledge of Christ,

the deeper understanding of him, the more like him we become. Understanding, knowing him. How do we do

that? His word, his word. Greatest book in the history of the world. That's ultimately 66 books.

It's a compilation of books, the Bible. He shows us his character. He shows us all of those things

that he describes. He shows us his spirit, his actions, his thoughts. It's all there. Yet for

many of us, we don't open it. We don't look at it. Crazy is the Bible's more available now than

any time in the history of the world. You can print a copy. You can buy it on Amazon.

Ollie's are real cheap. No advertisement for Ollie's, by the way. All right. But they're

cheap. They're on your phone. Some good Bible apps. The Bible app's great. The River Church

has an app that the Bible's in on it. But yet the reality is the Bible has become a 60 or 70 or 80

minute a week thing that maybe we open when the pastor tells us to turn there.

Value it. We don't look at it. Make glance at it. I'm not talking to anybody else. This is the

reality of the busyness of our world. The prioritization or the lack of prioritization

in our lives. I got a job. I got sports. I've got this happening. I've got that happening. You fill

in the blank because we all have them. And yet we don't prioritize the living, active word of God.

John 1 says, in the beginning was the word. The word was with God. The word was God. And so we

know that truth. Yet it sits on our shelves and gets dusty. Guaranteed.

Most of us have five, six, seven, eight Bibles on a shelf in our home.

Yeah, we don't open them. And yet we're confused. I want to conform to Christ,

but I don't, I don't go to the very, the blueprints of looking like him. Well, I want to know,

more about God? We'll start with reading John. I tell you this, go read the book of John. Really

easy. You can read the gospels. You better see the character of God. 66 books encapsulate that.

And I'm not saying, hey, you got to go read all 66 books this week. If you do it, you're a fast

reader. Guess what? Just read one. Start for five minutes a day, seven minutes a day, 10 minutes a

day. Understand many of us, it's easier to grab that remote and turn on the TV rather than open

our Bible. Because we have to find out about this or that rather than prioritizing ultimately

human responsibility to look more like him. It's not simply just knowing him, it's living like him.

We can know all the things we want. There's a lot of smart people that know a lot of the things in

the Bible, yet they don't live the things in the Bible. But Jesus say, if you love me, you'll know

me. No, he didn't say that. If you love me, you will keep me.

My commandments, you can know the commandments, but not living them out, living his truth and

responding wrote this in my notes, such a integral, huge part of our human responsibility of conforming

to Christ is being humble, is being humble, being humble and seeking him literally coming to the

conclusion of I have not arrived. I need to know more of Christ. I shared this this week in my

I always want to make sure that you understand this and we understand this. There's nobody in

this room that's arrived. There's nobody perfect in here. There's no marriage that's got it all

figured out. There's no men that they don't make mistakes. There's no women. There's no kids,

no teenagers. We're all striving in this process to conform our lives to Christ. Every single one

of us today, maybe your first time ever walking into a church building. Guess what? I want to

help you conform your life to Christ. I really do. I'm so thankful you're here. I want to introduce

You and then if you want, you know, him as our, our process to look more like him and this

passionate pursuit to, to, to know him and to, to, to live for him and to think like Christ to be

sanctified and ultimately live out the way God has called us to man, that pursuit, that passion

is so great, but we must come to the realization that I've not arrived. I'm not where I'm supposed

to be, but thank God I still have time.

To live for him, conform to the image of Christ. And I shared some of those passions. So my

childhood passions of, of playing baseball or basketball and sports, sports is such a,

a great analogy because these passions create a pursuit in my life to be like that. And I want to

emulate it to our lives or our lives passionately pursuing Christ. Cause if they are, we will begin

to emulate him.

We'll begin to conform our lives to him. And then you'll begin to see the very fruit of the love for

Christ in your life. Like what does that look like? Well, things will change the way you interact with

others, the way your husband, way your wife, way your, uh, respond to your parents, way you respond

to your boss or way you are the boss or way you, you read the Bible. You begin to see changes. It's

not like a, I think, no, no, no. This is a fact. Paul says it. He describes like the things that I

thought were important.

I realized they were rubbish. They didn't matter. They didn't truly matter. You're going to look at

people differently. So I have jokingly through this month, I've gotten an opportunity to do

announcements a couple of weeks ago. And then I mentioned it the week before I said, man, I beg

you to be a part of growing in God's word. I even joked and said, I'd bribe you if I had to, right?

Some of that's joking. Most of that's true because I believe just as we preached or just getting

finishing a preach to conform to Christ is a challenge for us to look more like him.

Dads, to conform your life to Christ, you'll be a better dad.

Not a perfect dad.

That's humility right there.

Moms, husbands, wives.

See, our interactions will begin to change.

We begin to conform our lives to Christ.

We begin to emulate, imitate Jesus.

Saying that's easy.

I wish I could get up and say that, don't you?

Hey, it's easy.

You won't have any difficulties.

You imitate Christ this week and you won't stumble or fall.

Isn't it interesting?

The world ends up like, once we conform to Christ,

there's an opposition that comes and you begin to go,

do I want to respond with my flesh or respond with my spirit?

Right?

Those difficulties happen.

We want to take control or we want to respond in anger or rage

or somebody does something bad to us, an enemy.

Well, guess what?

I'm going to get back at you.

I'm going to love you the way Christ loved you

and forgave you and forgave me.

Love your enemy.

Pray for them.

My favorite quotes from all the Charlie Kirk stuff,

somebody posted, I saw it.

I just read it overnight.

I said, we don't want revenge.

We want revival.

What a great response.

Yeah, my flesh goes, I want to respond in revenge and anger

and the atrocities, the evil in our world.

Guess what?

We knew that's the standard of the world.

How about we live the standard of Christ?

Pray for broken people.

Pray for ones that are struggling.

Pray for ones that are blinded by the evil of darkness of our world

and pray for a revival.

Pray for the church to be.

Conform to Christ.

Conform to a business philosophy,

not conform to a passion that a pastor has,

not conform to things that we like,

but conform to the actions of Christ in a real, true, authentic way.

I'll tell you, church, I guarantee you people will notice.

Conform our lives, change everything.

Peter closes out.

Second Peter says, you therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand,

take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people

and lose your own stability,

but grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus,

or Lord, Savior, Jesus Christ,

to be the glory both now and the day of eternity.

Growing, it's a pursuit.

It's a passionate pursuit of knowing him more.

Man, if I can encourage you, inspire, challenge you for anything this morning.

You don't, you forget everything else was done.

Passionately pursue Jesus.

That's my prayer for us as a church, that we passionately pursue him.

Let's pray.

God, we love you.

We honor you.

We seek to honor you.

God, this morning as we live out, sing out, preach out your word,

God, may you challenge us.

May you guide us.

May you correct us, God.

Ultimately, my prayer for us as a church,

my prayer for us as families, as individuals,

is to,

God, I know there's men and women in this room that don't know you, God.

May your Holy Spirit work in their life right now in a real way.

May they come to the realization that they are lost and they can be saved,

confessing their sins and believing in their heart.

You came, you died and rose again, God.

But I know there's many others sitting in this room.

We've conformed.

our lives to the American dream or we've conformed our lives to our flesh. We conformed our lives to

a false image. But God, may we get back to the basics. May we get back to the roots of conforming

our lives to you. God, I know there's husbands that need to have a change in their life right

now, that their actions, their responses, they'll conform their lives to you. I know there's mothers

and wives, children. God, that we may see a change. We actually truly live like you. We disregard the

passions of this world and we pursue the passions of you and watch everything change. God, I pray

for that boldly this morning. That we imitate you, that we act like you, that we talk like you.

Forgive us in our failures. Thank you for your grace.

Thank you for your mercy.

Form us. We place our lives in your hands. Shape us, mold us, make us, transform us to what you want

us, God. We praise you. We love you. Thank you for this morning. Thank you for your word. Help us to

be in it, grow in it, be a part of a community that helps us understand it. We love you,

praise you, we honor you. In Jesus' wonderful name, I pray.