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Romans 9-16

Applying Righteousness: Towards the Lord

Josh Yates · Sunday, 19 October 2025 · Romans 12:1-2 · 48:24 · 7,638 words

Romans S26 · 12:1-2 Lake Orion

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

Pastor Josh Yates preaches on Romans 12:1-2, showing how the previous chapters explain what God has done through Jesus and how we must now respond. He emphasizes that what we believe about Jesus matters, and that God's mercy calls us to be living sacrifices. The sermon warns against distractions like cell phones that dull our minds, and uses the story of the woman who touched Jesus' garment to encourage faith. Listeners are asked to renew their minds, turn from worthless things, and give their lives to Jesus.

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.

worship 48 average 7 phone 13 monday 7 check 9 niners 4 renew 7 moralistic 4 addicted 4 american 6 jesus 69 scheme 4

Topics

Sin 5 Faith 5 The Holy Spirit 4 Prayer 3 The Gospel 3 Obedience 2 Salvation 2 Judgment 1 The Flesh 1 The Law 1 Assurance 1 Love 1 Hope 1 Sanctification 1

Scripture referenced 23

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

Romans 12 2:52 Romans 12 2:52 Romans 3:23 7:03 Romans 8 13:19 Romans 12 14:36 Romans 12:1-2 14:46 Romans 12:1 15:00 Romans 9 15:52 Romans 1 16:57 Romans 11 17:00 Romans 12:3-16 23:23 Romans 12:8 28:14 Romans 1 31:10 Romans 12:18 31:11 2 Corinthians 10 33:39 2 Corinthians 10:3 33:42 Mark 5:24-34 41:41 Mark 5 41:49 Mark 5:26 42:36 Romans 10:9-10 45:37 Psalms 119:37 46:04 Ephesians 6:17 46:11 Colossians 3:16 46:24

Transcript

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

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Thanks again for joining us.

We hope you're blessed by today's message.

My name is Pastor Josh Yates.

I'm the location pastor here at the River Church Lake Orion.

And if you're a guest with us specifically, we want to say welcome to you.

If you aren't aware or if you need to be reminded, we are gathering candy for Trunk or Treat.

And there is a little competition going on.

And if there's more candy in Elijah's side, then next Sunday, I have to preach in a lion's hat.

So this Sunday, I'm wearing what?

So if you don't know, most of you know the story.

I'm originally from California.

I was raised bleeding red and gold.

So it's not just a bandwagon thing.

I've rooted for the 49ers my entire life.

And I'm glad that you're Lions fans.

I'm a Niners fan.

It's the way it is.

And we didn't even care about each other until a few years ago.

So, I mean, let's be honest.

You didn't care really?

I mean, everybody's like, Joe Montana, yay.

And then now it's like, oh, we hate the Niners.

All right.

Hashtag not sorry.

But.

But from the looks of things, I'm going to be wearing a Honolulu blue hat next week.

So I'm in my Niner red today.

All right.

So just so you know that.

And that's kind of the fun we have.

And we like to be here at Lake Orion.

I often tell people and people once they have coffee with me.

In fact, I had somebody say this week, I wish more people just have coffee with you because then they'd understand that you're just a guy who loves Jesus.

That was the biggest compliment that I could be paid this week, to be honest.

You know, and I may be I get up here.

I'm loud.

I'm a big dude.

I'm passionate.

You know, and if that's all you see of me, you might go, whoa, I don't know if I could talk to him.

I'm really a teddy bear.

All right.

And I love talking about Jesus.

Anybody that has questions.

And we really want to have kind of a laid back.

I don't know if you want to call it a vibe or whatever here at Lake Orion.

You know, we're all called to something different.

We all have our struggles and we all need a savior.

And that's what we're about at the River Church overall.

We all need a savior.

And his name is Jesus Christ.

And.

And so this morning we continue our series in Romans.

So if you have a Bible, turn to Romans chapter 12, Romans chapter 12, probably one of the most probably heard passages from the book of Romans.

One of the one of the many, because there's a lot in the book of Romans.

But in this, these two verses and verses one and two, Paul shifts in his letter.

So Paul is writing this letter to the church in Rome.

The church in Rome is comprised of a lot of Jewish Christians, but also a considerable.

Amount of Gentile Christians, which, by the way, the Gentiles, that's all of us, except for, I think, one of us here today or a couple of us.

Yeah, I know.

I got you.

I got you.

I wasn't forgetting it.

But the reality is, is God came to the Gentiles and we learned last week about how the Jews had largely rejected Christ in a way so that the Gentiles could come to Christ.

And then it would come full circle and God would save a room in it from the from his people, his Hebrew, his Hebrew people.

To come to Jesus because of what happened in the Gentiles.

So it's it's a beautiful thing that God is doing.

But in order to really understand what Paul is saying here, we have to go all the way back to the beginning of the book.

And I want to make sure we understand some basics about what Paul is referring to when we get to this passage all the way back in Romans one.

We learn that Jesus is king and must be proclaimed because this is how God rescues the gospel, reveals the God's righteousness and how of God and how he's rescued us if we respond to Jesus and give him our lives.

I want to say it again.

At the onset, it matters what you believe and it matters what you do with Jesus.

What you believe about Jesus is the foundation.

There's so many people in our world that say, hey, I believe in God.

I believe in God.

What do you think about Jesus?

Oh, now people are get a little bristly.

You want to know why?

Because at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

And every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God, the father.

At one point or another, we have a choice to bow now.

He receives salvation.

Or bow later at judgment.

Those are the choices we have.

It matters what we do with Jesus.

And we're going to learn more about that this morning.

We're transformed by God's grace.

We also learned that this good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ, also reveals God's wrath on sin.

And he's right to be angry at sin.

He's right to punish sin.

We've all responded to God by exchanging truth for a lie.

Every single one of us.

And we've turned to the created to be the God of our lives.

Or, well, we're created too.

So many of us, in fact, the majority of us, struggle with being the God, little g, of our life.

That's really what we want.

We want control.

And so God has given mankind over to its evil desires.

And those desires lead to death, both physical and spiritual.

And God rescues us from this if we turn to him.

See, the thing about our God is that he will actually give us what we choose.

We can choose him and have all of the benefits and the good consequences.

That comes with choosing him.

But if we don't want him, he's not going to force himself on us.

We're not puppets or robots that God says you're just going to make your whatever.

We have a choice.

And what you do with Jesus determines what that choice is.

But for those of us that know Jesus, we have to be careful with how we look at those outside the church.

It's too easy to sit here and go and look at all the others outside and go, oh, we're not like them anymore.

When in reality, we've forgotten what we've been saved from.

We have to remember what we've been saved from.

Paul spoke about that.

He spoke about that back in chapters 2 and 3.

Ultimately, God's judgment is based on truth, not on what we think we do.

Hear that.

God's judgment is based on truth, not on what we think we do.

We're all at the same level.

It doesn't matter whether you're rich or poor, white or black, American or not, born into a Christian family or not.

Sin has separated us all from God.

Why do we know that?

Romans 3.23.

For all have sinned and fallen short of God's glorious standard.

When it comes to God, we bring nothing to the table.

When it comes to God, we bring nothing to the table.

God brings nothing to the table.

God brings it all, and God does it all.

And every single person on the face of the earth is guilty, including this guy speaking right now.

Every single one of us is guilty of sin, and everyone is accountable.

We can't be deceived.

The world's going to try to tell you, oh, we're all good inside.

My friends, no, we are not.

When left to our own devices, we will be selfish.

We will do whatever we can to get mine every single time.

And if anybody in here knows Jesus, we all know that the reality is anything good,

anything good in us is him.

It's him.

And God puts people right with him through Jesus because only Jesus paid the penalty for sinners

and proves that God is fair to forgive.

This is the awesome thing.

I've said so much throughout this book.

We have to know how bad the bad news is so we know how good the good news is.

The bad news is pretty bad.

The good news is even better because God has covered our sin by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ

if we accept him as our Savior.

It is.

It is over and done with.

We are justified if we accept him and we give him our life.

It's an amazing grace.

But it's through Jesus alone, not through works, not through any other belief system.

It's through Jesus alone.

We repent of our sin and we turn to Jesus through faith in Christ.

Our hope is Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

And the gospel brings us hope that we can be changed even today.

Even when we struggle, even when we don't know what the next step is, we can be changed today.

The gospel gives us hope that we are being continually changed

and will be continually changed until we see Jesus face to face one day in heaven.

God is continually making us more into Jesus Christ if you have given him your life.

But I do want to say this real quick, though.

I believe in the American church, we have done a disservice to so many people.

We get up here and say, if you'll ask Jesus into your heart

and you'll pray this prayer after me as a pastor, then you're saved.

My friends, it's not about saying the right words.

It's not about attending a right church.

It's about what you really believe about Jesus.

And if you've given your heart to him, given yourself to him,

we can think we gave our heart.

Well, you know, I believe in him.

I, you know, guy upstairs.

Yeah, no.

The reality is if we confess that Jesus is Lord, if we confess he's Lord, that means we're saved.

means I've given him control of my life. And when we meet Jesus, we're different. I once had a

student in youth ministry. I spent almost 20 years in youth ministry. And I once had a student ask

me, so can I ask Jesus into my heart and then live my life however I want to? Because God's

gracious, right? I'm like, no, that's not how it works. It's not a mantra we pray and all of a

sudden I'm in the club. It's about making him the Lord of our life and actually living our lives

for him. Why would we want to do anything else? Because in reality, God made us his friends after

we used to be his enemy. And it was only done by him. Jesus brought us life. Sin was strong, but

Jesus is stronger. Our response to this can either be reliance on God or trying to earn it. And I

would venture to say that in a room this size, some of us in this room are still trying to earn

your salvation. You're still trying to do enough to be on God's good side. I need to tell you this

morning, it's not possible. It's not possible. There isn't one of us that can do enough good

that would outweigh our bad because the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal

life. Through works? No. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. There's not enough works you can do. In fact,

what so many believe in the world today and in the church is moralistic therapeutic deism.

Matt Chandler wrote in his book,

explicit gospel, while true obedience is a result of love for God, moralistic legalism assumes it

works the other way around, that love results from obedience. From the standpoint of moralistic

legalism, root issues aren't of most importance. Appearing obedient is. The moralist is far more

interested in external actions while still gives sin quarters in his heart. And I would venture to

say there's some of us in this room that are perfectly fine with some of the sin that we have

in our hearts.

Because we like it. We're really honest. We like it. We don't want to give God that. And yeah,

that's exactly what God wants. Moralistic therapeutic deism is fine with sin hiding

in a foxhole, Chandler says. The gospel wants to nuke the whole. As long as bad behavior is not

visible or tangible, the moralist will tolerate some of what Jerry Bridges calls respectable sins.

A moralist is not on the hunt. He's not aggressively seeking to destroy that which is evil in him,

but is content to simply...

wash his or her hands. Here's the thing, my friends. In Jesus, we are set free. Chains are broken at the

name of Jesus Christ. We're free from condemnation, free from the flesh, and all it's done because

we've been adopted into the family of God when we go after Christ. And then, Paul, in the name of

chapter 8, it becomes so awesome. And Paul's on a roll. He asks a series of questions that ends

with the fact that we are more than conquerors in Jesus Christ. God has chosen to love us,

and if you are a follower of Jesus, he has set his love on you, and nothing can separate us from

the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And my friends, if that doesn't get us excited,

then we got to check our hearts. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Nothing. Once

we've given him our lives. It's the gospel of Christ. It's the gospel of Christ. And beauty of

God's love is he loves those that don't know Jesus, that have not turned to him yet. But your life

hasn't been changed yet. You must come to Jesus.

Believe who he says he is and what he did, and then you can be saved. And if you have a question

about that this morning, talk to guest services. Talk to me. Please pull somebody aside. Ask what

it means to follow Christ, because it matters what we believe about Jesus. And then Paul changes.

So the first part of his book, he's been talking about what God has done. All through these 11

chapters, he's talked about what God has done. In chapter 12, the letter shifts. And now it's about

how we respond to what God has done.

This is the response to everything God has done for us. And it's about to shift. Romans 12, 1 to 2

says this.

Let's go back to verse 1 on the screen.

What's the key word we need to be looking for there?

You get a star.

Whoever said it.

It's the word therefore.

Bible study 101.

Anytime you see the word therefore, or and now, or but God, you have to go back.

And what I like to say is, we've got to find out what the therefore is.

We've got to know.

We've got to.

Because Paul's saying, hey, based upon everything I just said,

specifically in Romans 9 to 11, because he just talked to the Jewish people,

but all throughout the book that he just laid out, this is now what I am saying.

So we can't just take this and go, oh, okay, God's mercy is great.

No.

He's just talking.

He talked about the mercies of God for 11 chapters.

This is a long letter.

Single-spaced, front and back.

And he's referring back to everything that he just said.

That's also why I did a quick review this morning, just to help us out a little bit.

All right?

A commentator said it like this.

God's mercy to the terribly fallen human race is through the provision of his son, Jesus.

Radically sinful man was radically lost.

But God provided a radical righteousness through the radical person of his son.

Which made a radical new life in view of history possible.

In view of this mercy, God calls us to commitment.

Remember the massive theology of Romans 1 to 11?

We just talked about it.

Which burst into consummate doxology in the final verse of chapter 11.

For from him and through him and to him are all things.

To him be the glory forever.

That very theology is the foundation for committed living.

Paul told us what God has done.

And now we're going to learn how to live as a Jesus follower.

One that has experienced all that God has done.

And how we should live.

And how we should now live their lives.

I love how Kent Hughes put it.

He said he gave us a theology.

Which led to a doxology.

Which now leads to practicality.

He gave us a theology.

A study of what God has done.

And who he is.

And how he loves.

And everything that happened.

Which leads us to doxology.

Which is praising God for what he's done.

Giving him praise.

And that doxology should lead us to practicality.

And Paul's going to talk about what that means.

His appeal first is according to the mercies of God.

What we've learned.

And what are we called to do?

We're called to worship.

Worship him first.

Worship God alone.

And what is worship?

What is it actually?

By definition, worth-ship is declaring that something else is worth more.

It's worth-ship.

It's declaring that whatever I'm setting my sight on, it's worth more.

I'm going to make that loud.

I'm going to give attention to that.

That's what it's going to be about.

We were all made to worship.

We all live for something or someone.

Every single one of us.

And I say again.

I get it.

Not everybody in here is a football player.

Not everybody is a football fan.

But there's more and more Honolulu Blue that shows up every Sunday.

Where were you guys six years ago?

That's all I'm saying.

All right?

But the reality is this.

What are we doing when we go to Ford Field or for me when I got to go to Levi's last year?

That's exactly right.

We're worshiping.

We're worshiping our football team.

We're declaring how worth or in bad plays how unworthy they are of our praise.

Of our accolade.

And dare I lose some of you based upon.

I mean, and I think essentially.

I think deep blue from doTERRA really helps my shoulder.

Whatever's in that.

But sometimes we look at some social media accounts and there's a lot of worship of essential oils.

Just be honest.

Some of us worship Star Wars or the Lord of the Rings or Narnia.

I'm trying to catch everybody here.

Okay.

You get my drift or electronics or you fill in the blank.

None of that is necessarily bad

unless our worship of those things

are louder than the worship of our God.

You guys don't know how crazy I get

when the 49ers score a touchdown.

My family knows.

Just for reference,

when I realize this may bring up,

I don't want to bring up any pain for you,

but when the game changed three years ago,

I was at halftime ready to eat plenty of crow.

I thought we were done.

I got plenty of text messages talking smack too.

I will say I didn't send them back.

But at the end of the game,

Sydney and I are running through the house.

The dogs are barking.

I'm outside with my Niners flag.

I'm waving it all over.

I was worshiping my team

and I've always been challenged.

I better worship my God more than that.

And so this morning,

can I challenge you in your worship?

For some reason,

I mean, worship is a very personal thing

for all of us, right?

It is.

I get it.

I've told every worship team member

that I've been able to talk to though

that stands on a stage or plays an instrument.

If you don't raise a hand in private,

don't you dare raise a hand on the stage

because now you're performing.

What you do on stage,

should be a mirror of what you're already doing in private.

But here's the next step.

If you can raise your hands for the Lions,

you better be ready to raise your hands for the Lord.

And some of us,

that's a stretch.

I get it.

Maybe we were raised more in a more conservative church.

Be challenged this morning.

The Bible talks about raising holy hands in the sanctuary.

Okay?

And he probably knows it's coming

and I'm not going to use his name this morning.

But one of our guys,

he's very reserved.

And when the Lions score a touchdown,

he goes like this.

It's all I expect.

It's all I expect.

What I say is this all the time.

Redline your personality when it comes to Jesus

because he alone is worthy.

He alone is worthy.

So if you're being challenged,

allow yourself to be a little challenged.

People are like,

but I've never done that.

Then just, you know,

wave hi to God.

You know?

I mean, you can do that.

There's some guys that, you know,

lift the TV.

Lift the TV.

No, anyway, I'm not going to go into it.

But the reality is,

is just be challenged in that.

Be challenged in that.

I don't,

I want to make light of it a little bit,

but I want us to laugh a little bit.

But at the same time,

it's a serious thing.

Super serious thing.

Communicate that heart that you have for the Lord

and let that heart grow

because based on his mercies

and everything he's given to us,

how can we do any less

to offer our lives as a living sacrifice?

So worship when directly given toward God,

we're declaring that he's worth more.

Here's the thing, guys.

All of sin,

all of sin is a worship problem.

Commentator said it like this.

If a Christian is living selfishly

and independently of the body of Christ,

not obeying Romans 12, 3 to 16,

which we're going to get to next week

in the coming weeks,

then the problem is with the heart.

The problem is a lack of surrender to God and worship.

If a Christian cannot follow Paul's commands

in 12, 17 to 15, 13,

which is the rest of our study,

then the fundamental issue is a failure

of living under Christ's lordship.

It is a worship problem.

So what are we to do to worship God?

We present ourselves as living sacrifices,

holy and acceptable to God.

What is Paul talking about here?

Well, the reality is in Paul's day,

most sacrifices meant death.

Sacrifice meant death in Paul's day.

And we're called to be a living sacrifice

to continually offer,

offer ourselves to God.

It's a total commitment.

This is not just a call for clergy,

for missionaries,

or for those that work for God.

When I was in college,

I worked in Wells Fargo,

at Wells Fargo Bank.

I was a teller.

And I became known as the resident theologian.

And all my coworkers would talk to me about this.

And the thing they would always tell me is,

well, that's because you're going to be a pastor.

That terminology should never even be in our lungs.

I am not called to any more of a commitment to Christ

than you are.

My role is different.

And the Bible says that as a teacher,

I'll be held to a higher account.

But that doesn't mean that my call to give up my life

and live as a living sacrifice is for Christ

is any deeper than yours is.

We are all called to the same Jesus,

to the same relationship.

And just because I show up at one of your events,

it doesn't mean I'm not.

I have to pray. You can pray too. My prayers don't mean anymore. Jesus wants to hear your prayers as

much as he wants to hear mine. And based upon what we've learned for what God has done for us,

it's a logical conclusion. It makes sense. When I was in youth ministry, I used to have a banner

in the youth room downstairs, and it said, God gave his all for us by dying for us. The least

I can do is live for him. It's a logical conclusion based upon everything we've learned,

what God has done for us. The new King James translates our spiritual act of worship as a

reasonable service. Reasonable service. Worship is service to God. It's giving and glowing in

all circumstances and all of life. As we worship, he is for sure worthy of our singing. It's

actually a primary way that I personally connect with God. Music is such a gift for me. I enjoy it.

I've spent so much time with the Lord in song and in prayer and in the word in that way,

because that's how God made me. I get that's not all of us, but it's totally that way.

And like I said, maximize your personality in this way, whatever that looks like. I can't tell

you how many people, though, that I've talked to over the years that haven't experienced that in

their own personal time. They only sing at church, and they don't really have much worship music in

their own life. Guys, I'm not trying to like promote anything. Every month, though, on my

Facebook page, I post a list of worship songs for you to use, because I want to give you that tool.

It's on Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube for free. You get to watch. You can watch the videos. In fact,

oftentimes, at least a night every other week, if not once a week, our family sits down, and we

watch worship videos on YouTube and just spend time worshiping Jesus together. You can do that in

your home. You don't have to wait for our awesome worship band to lead you in worship. There's so

many tools to be able to do that on your own. So it is singing, but it's more than that, too.

He's worthy of our coming together to talk about how great he is and learning who he is.

He's worthy of magnifying his grace and declaring his name.

Here's the thing, though. Paul, right now, is talking about what you do on Monday, not on Sunday.

Who do you worship tomorrow? Who do you worship Tuesday, the rest of the week? Malachi 6, 6-8.

Sorry, not Malachi, Micah.

What God is saying is that, look, you can bring all these things. You can come and raise your

hands on Sunday. You can do all this stuff. You can look really good. You can make everybody else

think you're the most spiritual person in the world. You can be in every growth community.

You can be enrooted. You can do all this stuff. But if on Monday, you don't look like me,

it doesn't matter because it's all a show. And in verse 8, Micah says this. He has told you,

oh man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? But to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.

That's what we're called. That's what worship is. So do you offer worship on Sunday only to worship

something or someone else or worship yourself on Monday? Paul's calling us to worship with

everything and in every day in every way. There's a song called Monday Morning Faith by SEU Worship.

And I want to read some of the lyrics. I want to meet with you more than Sundays. I want to know

more than just my mother's faith because that's not enough to get through the rough. I need a

Monday morning faith. I want to hear you in more than just one way. Show your voice to the world.

Show your voice in all of the mundane things. You're in the in-between and you're in my everything.

And that's all I really need. Your mercy's new. Your mercy's new every morning. I come alive as

your calling. And all that I'm compelled to bring, it's my every day offering. And hell's not scared

of a Sunday faith if it only leads to empty praise. What really makes darkness run is when the saints

arise and praise in quiet on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday. To know you, to love you, to choose you

first. Thursday and Friday and Saturday. To see you, behold you in worship, singing ha,

Hallelujah, holy, holy, glory to the King of Kings.

Hallelujah, holy, holy, all honor and glory belongs to you.

Are you worshiping something or someone different on Monday

than you're worshiping here today?

And it's not just what you sing.

It's how we live.

Because remember, we are living sacrifices.

The thing about a living sacrifice

is it can crawl off of the altar.

We got to crawl back on

and let Jesus be on the throne of our lives.

And then Paul gets really personal.

He's not afraid to step on any toes here.

He says, don't be conformed to the world anymore.

Don't allow the world to squeeze you into its mold.

Don't think like those that don't know God.

Don't think like those that don't know God.

We have got to stop listening to all the pundits on the news.

Just because they have a little R next to their name,

just because they have a little D next to their name,

just because they're on Fox, just because they're on CNN,

it don't mean they right.

We can't check our brain at the door.

How does the world think?

Well, Paul told us back in Romans chapter one,

verses 18 to 32, let me read it for you.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven

against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men

who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

For what can be known about God is plain to them

because God has shown it to them.

For his invisible attributes,

namely his eternal power and divine nature,

have been clearly perceived

ever since the creation of the world

in things that have been made

so that they are without excuse.

For although they knew God,

they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him,

but instead they became futile in their thinking

and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Claiming to be wise, they became fools

and exchanged the glory of the immortal God

for images resembling mortal man

and they became fools.

And birds and animals and creeping things.

Therefore, God gave them up to the lusts of their hearts,

to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies

among themselves.

And it goes on and on.

Dishonorable passions.

This is what the world is teaching us.

Sexual immorality, including fornication,

adultery and homosexuality.

The Bible clearly calls these things sin

and yet the world is trying to call them good.

See, the word for conformed here

is the Greek word schema or scheme.

It's where we get the word scheme from.

The schemes of the world.

But if we're honest,

we give into the schemes of the world a lot.

We give into the think of the world a lot.

And it's easy to do because some of these things sound good

but they appeal to our flesh

not to the spirit of God.

We cannot check our brain

and or the spirit of God that lives in us

as Jesus followers at the door

wherever we are.

Whether it's the movie theater,

whether it's your headphones,

whether it's the books you read,

what you watch on TV,

we cannot check our brains at the door.

We cannot check the spirit of God at the door.

What are we to do instead?

We're to be transformed by the Spirit of God.

We're to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

The Greek word here is metamorpho,

which means metamorphosis, to change.

Just like the caterpillar that goes into the cocoon

and comes out as a butterfly,

we can go into a cocoon

with the Spirit of God and come out

looking more like Jesus.

To change. How does it happen?

We submit to the Holy Spirit.

We get in the Word of God.

How does our mind change?

We submit more and more to God and His Spirit.

Reading the Word of God, allowing it to change how we think.

Paul would say in 2 Corinthians 10

for though we walk in the flesh,

we are not waging war according to the flesh.

For the weapons of our warfare

are not of the flesh, but have divine power

to destroy strongholds.

And those strongholds are in our minds

and in the minds of people around us.

The battle that we see that's spiritual

is a battle for the souls of people.

We destroy arguments

and every lofty opinion

raised against the knowledge of God

and take every thought captive

to obey Christ.

Being ready to punish every disobedience

when your obedience is complete.

We take every thought captive.

Something we have to understand

with these strongholds

and not thinking like the world anymore,

just because you think it doesn't mean it's right.

Just because it's said to you in your head.

We all talk to ourselves.

You're not crazy.

Some of you a little more than others, but that's okay.

We love you. The reality is we all talk to ourselves.

We all have a running conversation in our heads.

And if we believe that our enemy,

the devil,

is a liar and the father of lies.

And every time he speaks as a lie,

He's going to lie to you about you, he's going to lie to you about God, and he's going to lie to you

about other people. And the world is selling us lies every day. And I don't know about you, but I

buy some of them hook, line, and sinker. And they're most often about myself. They're most often about

myself. Probably true of many of us. How do we transform our minds? We learn what God says.

We learn what God says is true. We get into the word, we talk to others about what we struggle

with, and then they speak God's truth into us. And God's spirit reminds us who he is and what he's

done. It's a process. It doesn't happen all at once. It's why we have a class like Rooted, to get

rooted in God's word, to learn more about what it means to be a disciple of the Lord. And we do it

together, not alone, because we need each other. It's why we have growth communities. It isn't just

to get together and talk about the latest Lions or Niners game, though that's fun. It's to actually

talk about Jesus and become more like him. We want to help you renew your mind. That's why we do what

we do. Why do we do this? Well, Paul finally says, so that you can know what God's will is.

So that you can follow him with your life, so you can live for him, so you can know him,

so you can be metamorphosized into the person of Jesus Christ.

See guys, when we don't know what to do next, it's because we've gotten our eyes off of Jesus.

Because he's a light, a lamp into our feet, and a light into our path. I'm with you. I wish the

light went about 10 to 15 steps out, but it illuminates the next one. Little did we know

that Disney could have really good theology and Frozen 2 when Anna says to do the next right thing.

But it's true.

Let God renew your mind and take the next right step. You're not going to know the 200th step.

Trust the one that does. I want you to remember this morning when you leave, if you offer yourself

completely to God, you will know his will and you will know him. Offer yourself completely to God

and you will know his will and you'll know him. Nothing but total commitment to God makes any

sense here. When we consider the mercies of God, how can we do anything less? And guys,

we have a worship problem. Too often we want to appear good rather than do good. Again,

who do you worship?

Hey, who do you worship? In a relatively short time, smartphones have grown to a near ubiquitous

status, which every passing, with every release, smartphones are becoming more and more powerful,

all more call-encompassing. You add AI to this, it's so much deeper. It's increased to user

adoption and a daily increase in screen time. Some highlights from 2024. On average, Americans

spend three hours and 15 minutes on their phones each day. Average. Three hours. People check their

phones an average of 58 times each day and almost 52 of 15 minutes on their phones each day.

Phone checks occur during work hours. Worldwide statistics show that the top five nations in

cell phone use were the Philippines, Brazil, South Africa, Thailand, and Ghana, averaging over five

hours a day on their smartphones. One in three Americans, 36%, believe they spend too much time

on their smartphones each day. That's a correlation between generations too and phone screen time per

day because some of us in this room are like, well, I don't do that. Wait for it. Gen Z, six

hours and five minutes with 56% feeling addicted. Millennials, four hours and five minutes with 56%

in 36 minutes with 48% feeling addicted. Gen X, can I hear you this morning? Four hours and nine

minutes with 44% feeling addicted. Boomers, you're not out of this. Three hours and 31 minutes on

average, 29% feeling addicted. One study found that on average, children get their first phone

at the age of 12. That means the average American is expected to spend approximately 12 years of

their life looking at their cell phone. I'm not here to knock cell phones because I think there's

a lot of awesome uses for them. More than half of them are using cell phones. I'm not here to knock

half of Americans believe they're too dependent on their phones. 52%, as many as three and five

use their phones in the bathroom. Ew. And 27%,

use them at stoplights. Yikes. Get this, by 2027, there are expected to be 7.69 billion

smartphone subscriptions. As of 2022, there were 7.9 billion people on the earth. What influences

are you allowing in your life? With what you watch, what you read, with what you consume on

social media, that's TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, Discord. Heard of a kid this week that was bullied

so much that, you know, he attempted to take his life. News. It's a real issue. These things can

be good, but we check our brains and the spirit of God at the door of our cell phones so often.

You want to know why? The algorithm, I'm going to tell you this, the algorithm is made to get you

into sin. I'm beginning to believe that. I'll go, wait a minute, I talked about that with my wife,

and now it's shown up on my Facebook. I don't know if there's a correlation or not, but it sure is

kind of, kind of freaky. We check our brains in at the door because it's another dopamine hit.

Friends, we have to have this.

The spirit of God speaking louder than all the noise. What are you giving your life to and not

even realizing it? What are you worshiping and not even realizing it? Just before I was preparing

for this message, I was reminded of an account in Mark chapter 5, verse 24 to 34. I want you to hear

it. It's so meaningful. Mark chapter 5. I'm just going to read it for us. Great crowd followed

Jesus and thronged about him. And there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years.

I want to stop there for a second. You have to understand a woman in this state for 12 years

would have meant that she was a sinner. She would have been a sinner. She would have been a sinner.

And that nobody would have wanted anything to do with her. She had been disowned by everyone and

was outside of society, probably disowned by her very parents and family. Probably hadn't been

hugged in 12 years. Verse 26, it says, who had suffered much under many physicians. She had

spent all she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. She heard reports about Jesus and

came up behind him in the crowd, touched his garment. For she said, if I touch even his garments,

I will be made well. Immediately, the flow of blood dried up and she felt in her body that she

was healed of her disease. And Jesus perceiving in himself that power had gone out of from him

immediately turned around in the crowd and said, who touched my garment? I love the disciples

response. His disciples said to him, you see the crowd pressing around you and you say, who touched

me? Everybody has looked around to see who had done it. But the woman knowing what had happened

to her came in fear and trembling because that's all she knew. Some of you here this morning,

she fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth. Some of you here need to go before Jesus

and tell him the whole truth. Do not be afraid because he loves you. He said to her, she hadn't

heard that for 12 years. I can imagine her saying, I'm not that if to anybody anymore. And Jesus says,

no, look at me, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, be healed of your disease.

She knew all she needed was a touch of Jesus. She believed it with all she had.

Nobody could keep her away from him.

So she pressed in and she went after him.

Jesus turns to her and calls her his daughter.

She wasn't alone anymore.

She was clean.

And I want to tell you this morning,

man, be renewed in your mind.

Go after the Lord.

Make yourself a living sacrifice.

Run to Jesus and he'll heal you.

It may not look the way you thought it would,

but let me tell you what,

when Jesus heals you,

it's better than you could ever ask or think.

If you don't know Jesus today, call on his name.

Romans 10, 9 to 10,

if you confess with your mouth

that Jesus is Lord,

believe in your heart

that God raised him from the dead,

you will be saved.

For with the heart one believes and is justified

and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

If you don't know today

that you know Jesus as Savior,

make sure today.

We would love to talk to you at guest services.

I'd love to speak to you afterward.

And if you need to come back

or if you have a worship problem,

give him your worship.

Come back to Jesus.

Give him everything.

Psalm 119, 37,

I turn my eyes from looking at worthless things

and give me life in your ways

Ephesians 6, 17,

take the helmet of salvation

and the sword of the spirit,

which is the word of God.

Renew your mind,

protect your mind from the world.

Get into the word and let God change you.

Colossians 3, 16,

let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,

teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom,

singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs

with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Let's commit to be living sacrifices together

and let's help one another

crawl back on that altar when we need it.

And how we do it is by renewing our minds before God.

Why?

So we can know what God's will is.

Go after him today.

You won't regret it.

If you don't know how,

we want to help Jesus today.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father,

thank you for your love for us.

Oh, I thank you for your Holy Spirit.

To be honest, God,

I didn't know what you wanted to say today.

I prepped, I put in the work

and just thank you so much for meeting us.

I thank you for,

for faithfully using a broken vessel.

Thank you for you.

Renew our minds, God.

Help us to run after you.

Help us to be living sacrifices.

Worship you with our lives.

Not just on Sunday.

If anybody doesn't know you here today,

God, I pray they'd call on the name of Jesus and be saved.

Thank you for your love.

In Jesus' name we pray.