How to Determine the Will of God (Romans 12:2)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.520 --> 00:00:03.600 As you're able to, please remain standing, and let's give our attention now 2 00:00:03.640 --> 00:00:11.390 again to Romans. We again continue reading through this book, hearing God's Word 3 00:00:12.910 --> 00:00:18.390 Romans twelve, versus one and two, focusing on verse two. This morning, 4 00:00:19.230 --> 00:00:23.579 just to remind you, Paul is beginning this great exhortation on how we 5 00:00:23.699 --> 00:00:28.100 ought to live our lives. I mean all sorts of detailed waves, so 6 00:00:28.260 --> 00:00:32.420 what it means to live as a Christian, and these two verses give something 7 00:00:32.500 --> 00:00:39.130 of a summary and introduction to his thinking about this. So verses one and 8 00:00:39.250 --> 00:00:45.009 two. This is God's word. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, 9 00:00:45.329 --> 00:00:49.770 by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, 10 00:00:50.280 --> 00:00:55.280 holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not 11 00:00:55.520 --> 00:01:00.960 be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind 12 00:01:00.880 --> 00:01:04.150 that, by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, 13 00:01:06.109 --> 00:01:14.230 what is good and acceptable and perfect. You may be seated. Each of 14 00:01:14.310 --> 00:01:19.579 us has various goals and objectives for each day. Perhaps some of them are 15 00:01:19.700 --> 00:01:23.939 planned, perhaps some of them are unplanned. Some of them work consciously, 16 00:01:25.859 --> 00:01:30.980 some subconsciously, but there are these intentions that we have, desires, objectives, 17 00:01:32.060 --> 00:01:36.730 goals were trying to reach. Now. Some of those are important, 18 00:01:36.930 --> 00:01:41.569 some of them are unimportant, some of them are foolish, some of them 19 00:01:41.609 --> 00:01:48.760 are wise. God's Word gives us some instruction, and that indeed quite a 20 00:01:48.799 --> 00:01:53.519 bit of instruction, and how we should be thinking about our lives, what 21 00:01:53.760 --> 00:01:59.920 the great goals and objectives are. Jesus puts them in various ways. This 22 00:02:00.120 --> 00:02:04.310 is through his apostle. Another way that he puts the he sets before us 23 00:02:04.670 --> 00:02:08.389 one of the great objectives of our lives, of our daytoday, living of 24 00:02:08.550 --> 00:02:15.860 our whole lives, and that is knowing the will of God. In verse 25 00:02:15.020 --> 00:02:20.060 two we have the first part of the verse sort of sets us up for 26 00:02:20.180 --> 00:02:24.060 that. It says, don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed 27 00:02:24.139 --> 00:02:29.740 by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is 28 00:02:29.860 --> 00:02:35.849 the will of God. That's the goal, discerning what is the will of 29 00:02:36.009 --> 00:02:38.849 God. This should be one of your great goals, something you should be 30 00:02:38.930 --> 00:02:45.560 thinking about every day. What is God's will? Now, of course, 31 00:02:46.080 --> 00:02:51.439 when Paul writes that we should do these things that we might discern the will 32 00:02:51.520 --> 00:02:55.319 of God, he doesn't mean merely knowing it. He also, of course, 33 00:02:55.400 --> 00:03:00.069 includes doing it. James Two hundred and twenty two says, be doers 34 00:03:00.189 --> 00:03:06.750 of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves. In other words, it's 35 00:03:06.750 --> 00:03:10.830 not good enough to work really hard to discern the will of God and then 36 00:03:10.949 --> 00:03:15.099 simply to walk away and say, well, glad I figured that out. 37 00:03:15.939 --> 00:03:19.460 The goal and discerning the will of God is to actually do the will of 38 00:03:19.539 --> 00:03:27.099 God. But doing, doing the will of God depends completely on hearing it, 39 00:03:28.050 --> 00:03:31.169 on knowing it, on understanding it. In other words, if you 40 00:03:31.409 --> 00:03:36.289 didn't first hear it and know what God's will is, what exactly would you 41 00:03:36.289 --> 00:03:40.680 be doing? You would be doing the imagined will of God, the dreamed 42 00:03:40.719 --> 00:03:46.840 up will of God, the guests at will of God. No, Paul 43 00:03:46.919 --> 00:03:51.840 wants us to discern the actual will of God, to know the real will 44 00:03:51.919 --> 00:03:59.150 of God, so that we might do it, a will that is good, 45 00:03:59.389 --> 00:04:02.310 acceptable and perfect, so that we might do the things that are good, 46 00:04:02.349 --> 00:04:09.150 acceptable and perfect. So all this to say is that knowing the will 47 00:04:09.270 --> 00:04:14.539 of God is important. It should be a primary objective in your lives day 48 00:04:14.659 --> 00:04:20.420 today, our to our and who wouldn't want to? Sure there are sinners 49 00:04:20.459 --> 00:04:25.850 who like to do their own thing. It's the very essence of sinfulness right 50 00:04:26.449 --> 00:04:30.089 the most. The essence of sinfulness to not do the will of God, 51 00:04:30.250 --> 00:04:34.889 to go the other way. But think about how important knowing the will of 52 00:04:35.089 --> 00:04:42.639 another is in even human relationships. How many spouses have asked, maybe you've 53 00:04:42.720 --> 00:04:46.720 asked, if I only knew what he wanted or if I only knew what 54 00:04:46.959 --> 00:04:56.110 she wanted right? Or about? Think about companies who desperately collect all kinds 55 00:04:56.149 --> 00:05:00.790 of information on us because they want to know our will. They want to 56 00:05:00.870 --> 00:05:04.269 know what we want so that they can act accordingly, so that they can 57 00:05:04.310 --> 00:05:10.379 sell to us and make lots of money. They want to know our will. 58 00:05:10.540 --> 00:05:14.060 They want to know what we want. Or there's students who try to 59 00:05:14.300 --> 00:05:18.500 please their teachers, employers who want to retain their employees. In every human 60 00:05:18.620 --> 00:05:25.290 relationship and every point where we are depending on someone, when our lives and 61 00:05:25.410 --> 00:05:30.529 our happiness is in the hands of another, we deeply feel the need to 62 00:05:30.569 --> 00:05:36.519 figure out what it is they want to reliably know so that we can act 63 00:05:36.519 --> 00:05:43.000 accordingly. Well, if that's true of other people who hold our lives in 64 00:05:43.079 --> 00:05:47.199 their hands to a small degree, how much more true is that of God, 65 00:05:47.360 --> 00:05:54.470 who upholds all things by the word of his power? Who holds our 66 00:05:54.709 --> 00:06:00.110 lives and our deaths entirely in his control, who gives, commands and requires 67 00:06:00.269 --> 00:06:06.019 things of his creatures, who made us to do certain things and wants us 68 00:06:06.420 --> 00:06:11.620 to do them, the God who knows our beginning, our middle and end, 69 00:06:11.740 --> 00:06:15.980 who controls at all, God who is our maker and our father and 70 00:06:15.100 --> 00:06:21.009 our king. We should want very much to know what he wants. We 71 00:06:21.089 --> 00:06:29.329 should desire very much to know what his will is. We should always be 72 00:06:29.410 --> 00:06:33.759 seeking as seeking it as if our life depended on it, because you know 73 00:06:33.879 --> 00:06:44.399 what it does, it really does. The first hurdle then to knowing God's 74 00:06:44.480 --> 00:06:50.430 will, I think, is perhaps apathy, just not caring about God's will, 75 00:06:50.470 --> 00:06:58.470 and I hope that you're at least over that first hurdle now well, 76 00:06:58.589 --> 00:07:01.379 with the importance of God's will before our mind, let's consider two other great 77 00:07:01.420 --> 00:07:09.180 obstacles that come between man and this knowledge of God. The first one, 78 00:07:09.259 --> 00:07:12.740 if I can be bold, I think, is fairly easily dealt with. 79 00:07:13.980 --> 00:07:17.370 Many people fail to come to the knowledge of God's will because they're simply looking 80 00:07:17.370 --> 00:07:23.410 in the wrong place. They think that when they are looking for God's will, 81 00:07:23.449 --> 00:07:27.089 that they are trying to figure out his secret will, and indeed it 82 00:07:28.050 --> 00:07:31.680 exists, but you're not going to find it out. It's secret for a 83 00:07:31.800 --> 00:07:39.399 reason. It's called secret for a reason. Deuteronomy twenty nine says the hidden 84 00:07:39.560 --> 00:07:43.240 things belong to the Lord and the revealed things belong to us, so that 85 00:07:43.360 --> 00:07:47.550 we might do them. To try to find out the secret things of God 86 00:07:48.709 --> 00:07:55.069 is a foolish task and a bit prideful to your parents don't tell you everything, 87 00:07:55.949 --> 00:08:00.980 your boss doesn't tell you everything, the government doesn't tell you everything. 88 00:08:01.139 --> 00:08:05.379 What makes you think that God is going to tell you everything? He won't, 89 00:08:05.540 --> 00:08:11.139 and he doesn't. It doesn't plan to either, whether it's all the 90 00:08:11.220 --> 00:08:13.850 names that are written in the book of life or where you're going to be 91 00:08:15.009 --> 00:08:18.889 living in a year, or who you're going to marry, or any number 92 00:08:18.889 --> 00:08:22.810 of a number of things, there are things that God simply is not going 93 00:08:22.009 --> 00:08:26.769 to tell you. You can't go to the back of the Bible and find 94 00:08:26.009 --> 00:08:33.840 yet one more chapter right after a revelation that you never realized before. There 95 00:08:33.879 --> 00:08:37.639 are simply some things that are hidden in some people spend their entire lives trying 96 00:08:37.679 --> 00:08:43.389 to figure out the mysteries, trying to figure out the hidden things, when 97 00:08:43.429 --> 00:08:48.710 God has given us an entire book of revealed things. My point is that 98 00:08:50.029 --> 00:08:52.389 when discerning the will of God, we have to be looking in the right 99 00:08:52.549 --> 00:08:56.740 place. Again, God says that the hidden things, the secret things, 100 00:08:56.860 --> 00:09:03.899 belong to him and the revealed things belong to us. So when God says, 101 00:09:05.500 --> 00:09:09.460 children, I want you to know my rules, I want you to 102 00:09:09.700 --> 00:09:13.649 know my will, then we ask, well, what is it, and 103 00:09:13.809 --> 00:09:18.210 he says here it is. He gives it to us in his word. 104 00:09:18.250 --> 00:09:22.649 And so the first obstacle and knowing his will is going to the right place. 105 00:09:22.570 --> 00:09:28.919 Instead of trying to divine it by all sorts of secret and ways people 106 00:09:28.960 --> 00:09:33.039 have come up with, let's simply go to his word, where he has 107 00:09:33.120 --> 00:09:35.919 revealed it, where he has expressed it to us, where he has taught 108 00:09:35.960 --> 00:09:39.470 us to us, and he has told us that it is good for everything 109 00:09:39.990 --> 00:09:46.470 that we need in our lives, sufficient for all that we need. That 110 00:09:46.669 --> 00:09:50.269 means we will have to depend on him for the secret things, we will 111 00:09:50.269 --> 00:09:54.899 have to wait on him for the unknowable things, but it also means that 112 00:09:54.019 --> 00:09:58.779 in the things that he has told us, we have a reliable place where 113 00:09:58.779 --> 00:10:01.419 we can go, where we can learn and know, without a shadow of 114 00:10:01.460 --> 00:10:07.129 a doubt, without any wondering, what is the will of God? That 115 00:10:07.490 --> 00:10:13.850 is something you can discern. It's something you can know in a process that's 116 00:10:13.889 --> 00:10:20.730 not mysterious. It starts with reading God's word, with hearing it, understanding 117 00:10:20.769 --> 00:10:26.840 it. The second obstacle to knowing God's will is much more difficult. The 118 00:10:26.960 --> 00:10:31.440 first one can be overcome simply by reading your bibles. The second one, 119 00:10:31.600 --> 00:10:41.590 however, the second one, however, that requires a miracle, Paul says. 120 00:10:41.909 --> 00:10:48.070 I seem to have gotten off Romans somehow here. Paul says that we 121 00:10:48.149 --> 00:10:52.419 should not be conformed, and do not be conformed to this world, but 122 00:10:52.539 --> 00:10:58.659 be transformed by the renewal of your mind. That conformity to the world is 123 00:10:58.779 --> 00:11:03.059 the second objective I want to put before you. Conformity to the will is 124 00:11:03.139 --> 00:11:09.169 a huge obstacle in knowing God's will, because it's exactly the opposite of God's 125 00:11:09.169 --> 00:11:16.450 will. Conformity of the world is this. When God says right, you 126 00:11:16.570 --> 00:11:22.480 go left. When God says store up your treasures on he in heaven, 127 00:11:22.080 --> 00:11:28.039 the world says do what on Earth? When God says Count in Humility, 128 00:11:28.080 --> 00:11:33.110 count others more significant than yourselves, the world says don't let your guide down. 129 00:11:33.149 --> 00:11:37.590 Look out for number one. We could go on and on and on. 130 00:11:37.149 --> 00:11:41.549 Wherever God says something, the world says the opposite. Where God says 131 00:11:41.629 --> 00:11:46.429 take this path, the world says take this other path. So you can 132 00:11:46.470 --> 00:11:50.340 see why that would be a pretty difficult obstacle to knowing and doing the will 133 00:11:50.379 --> 00:11:54.740 of God. If you're supposed to be heading West but you're heading east, 134 00:11:54.940 --> 00:12:00.860 it's just not going to work. It's a huge obstacle. But it's even 135 00:12:00.899 --> 00:12:05.769 worse because for some conformity to the world is not just going the opposite direction 136 00:12:05.929 --> 00:12:11.889 from time to time. For those who haven't been reborne by the spirit, 137 00:12:11.649 --> 00:12:18.080 who haven't had their minds transformed by him, who remain bound to sin, 138 00:12:18.039 --> 00:12:24.240 conformity to their world is their whole life, it's their whole state of mind, 139 00:12:24.399 --> 00:12:28.679 it's the whole way in which they live. Worldliness isn't just a set 140 00:12:28.759 --> 00:12:37.149 of actions and beliefs. For some of us, worldliness is blindness. You 141 00:12:37.269 --> 00:12:41.389 can't discern the will of God because you're totally blind to it. It's like 142 00:12:41.590 --> 00:12:46.340 a rubber ball that hits the wall. It's sort of just bounces right off. 143 00:12:46.259 --> 00:12:50.899 You hear it, you read it. But if you are conformed to 144 00:12:50.940 --> 00:12:56.500 the world, if your state of mind is so enslave to that, then 145 00:12:56.580 --> 00:13:01.210 it's impossible to see these things. Remember, back in Romans eight that we 146 00:13:01.330 --> 00:13:05.730 read earlier, we read that we are no longer slaves of sin and death. 147 00:13:07.250 --> 00:13:11.129 Those who are not united to Christ have great difficulty in knowing the will 148 00:13:11.169 --> 00:13:15.559 of God, even when they read it, because they don't care about it, 149 00:13:15.639 --> 00:13:18.759 they don't desire it, they don't want to do it. They're conformed 150 00:13:18.879 --> 00:13:24.519 to an entirely other pattern. There's a complete blindness that doesn't allow them to 151 00:13:24.600 --> 00:13:30.750 see even what they're seeing or hear even what they're hearing. And they love 152 00:13:30.830 --> 00:13:33.990 it. They live in their sin, they love being worldly, at least 153 00:13:35.149 --> 00:13:41.419 in part. So what can be done about this obstacle? Either is Christians 154 00:13:41.500 --> 00:13:48.620 or is Non Christians. If you find yourself on a worldly path, tempted 155 00:13:48.779 --> 00:13:54.580 to worldly paths, what can be done? How can you come away from 156 00:13:54.659 --> 00:14:00.970 conformity to the world to discern the will of God? Maybe that is a 157 00:14:01.090 --> 00:14:05.809 place that you are right now, worldliness that is. Maybe it's a path 158 00:14:07.009 --> 00:14:11.720 you've been on for some time. What can be done? Well, Paul 159 00:14:11.840 --> 00:14:20.519 says that something truly dramatic has to happen. He uses the word transformation like 160 00:14:20.639 --> 00:14:26.149 a metamorphosis, a process of renewal. It's not just saying, okay, 161 00:14:26.389 --> 00:14:31.230 I think we'll go the other way. A renewal has to happen, a 162 00:14:31.389 --> 00:14:37.190 transformation has to happen. The old born, the old burned out forest of 163 00:14:37.740 --> 00:14:46.220 morality has to change. If you imagine a forest where a forest fire is 164 00:14:46.259 --> 00:14:50.980 sort of ripped through and everything is hard and dark and dead, that kind 165 00:14:52.059 --> 00:14:58.610 of landscape has to be changed into a landscape teeming with life and flowers and 166 00:14:58.730 --> 00:15:03.850 vines and undergrowth and trees and birds and animals. That's a big change. 167 00:15:05.809 --> 00:15:13.279 It requires a word like transformation and renewal to no longer be conformed to the 168 00:15:13.399 --> 00:15:15.799 world. So that you might know the will of God. You have to 169 00:15:15.879 --> 00:15:22.669 be transformed by the renewal of your mind. That means the seeds of Godly 170 00:15:22.789 --> 00:15:28.429 desire have to be implanted in you and watered and grown by God's spirit. 171 00:15:31.269 --> 00:15:35.620 The knowledge of Biblical doctrine, knowing God's will, has to be has to 172 00:15:35.779 --> 00:15:41.500 come into your heart and your minds, and it too has to be watered 173 00:15:41.580 --> 00:15:50.169 by the spirit to bear forth fruit. This transformation, this renewal and to 174 00:15:50.370 --> 00:15:56.809 this degree, implies and teaches to us that there's a power that's required. 175 00:15:56.090 --> 00:16:03.840 That simply not within ourselves. If you feel overwhelmed by worldliness, if you 176 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:10.559 feel like there isn't enough strength in you to change it, to take another 177 00:16:10.720 --> 00:16:15.360 path, to do another thing, well, you're right. You don't have 178 00:16:15.679 --> 00:16:19.669 the resources within you to simply turn around, to simply go the other way. 179 00:16:22.710 --> 00:16:26.190 But it also implies, what God is saying here and what he said 180 00:16:26.190 --> 00:16:32.389 throughout the book of Romans, that God does have those resources. You don't, 181 00:16:32.509 --> 00:16:37.740 but God does. God has the resources and means of accomplishing them, 182 00:16:38.220 --> 00:16:42.820 and that's why there's no need for hopelessness. That's why, when we consider 183 00:16:42.860 --> 00:16:48.490 our own temptations to worldliness, our conformity to worldliness, we don't need to 184 00:16:48.649 --> 00:16:52.570 simply give up. And we say that's too hard for me. Well, 185 00:16:52.610 --> 00:16:56.370 yeah, it is, but it's not too hard for God. His grace 186 00:16:56.490 --> 00:17:02.679 is powerful to save. God has the power to renew you and promises to 187 00:17:02.799 --> 00:17:06.640 do that for all who trust in him. How do we know that? 188 00:17:07.480 --> 00:17:11.880 We know that because of Jesus. Jesus came, as we read even from 189 00:17:11.880 --> 00:17:15.990 Romans earlier, in Romans aid and in many other places. Jesus came to 190 00:17:17.269 --> 00:17:25.029 take on Worldliness, not to be worldly but to take our worldliness on himself 191 00:17:25.750 --> 00:17:27.950 so that he might die for it, so that he might suffer the punishment 192 00:17:29.109 --> 00:17:33.259 for it, so that all the things that worldliness leads to the wrath of 193 00:17:33.500 --> 00:17:41.059 God, the curse of death, might come to their end in him, 194 00:17:42.059 --> 00:17:47.650 because he would live again, because he would conquer those things, because he 195 00:17:47.690 --> 00:17:56.210 would rise up victorious above them by virtue of his otherworldly life, by his 196 00:17:56.369 --> 00:18:02.440 godly life, by his divine life, perfect life. Paul says in Romans 197 00:18:02.519 --> 00:18:07.079 six that in Christ we have died and risen to the newness of life so 198 00:18:07.279 --> 00:18:14.349 that we might live in him and walk in him. God doesn't call us 199 00:18:14.430 --> 00:18:18.910 to the transformation and the renewal of our minds by the strength in ourselves. 200 00:18:19.269 --> 00:18:22.990 If we take everything that he's been saying and put this in the context in 201 00:18:23.069 --> 00:18:27.299 which it is, he's saying you got you. What is required in you 202 00:18:29.420 --> 00:18:36.380 is something miraculous to be united to Jesus Christ, God himself, that you 203 00:18:36.420 --> 00:18:42.289 might die to that which is worldly and live again in him. The son 204 00:18:42.450 --> 00:18:48.450 of God was resurrected from the dead, and we, who are united in 205 00:18:48.609 --> 00:18:53.450 him, are also resurrected from the dead. We have risen with him. 206 00:18:53.450 --> 00:18:59.640 He says a resurrection that will become consummate on the last day when even our 207 00:18:59.759 --> 00:19:07.480 bodies arise with him. I'm saying all this to underline this point I made 208 00:19:07.519 --> 00:19:12.109 about hopelessness. When you look at Jesus Christ and his death and his resurrection 209 00:19:12.470 --> 00:19:18.589 and see yourself and him, how can you be hopeless? How can you 210 00:19:18.789 --> 00:19:25.299 look at worldliness and say it's too powerful, because it's clearly not too powerful. 211 00:19:25.299 --> 00:19:30.500 Jesus Christ has come, he has conquered, he has risen from the 212 00:19:30.539 --> 00:19:34.740 dead and, as we confessed earlier, now says, is seated sittith at 213 00:19:34.779 --> 00:19:40.329 the right hand of God, the Father, Almighty, ruling and guiding and 214 00:19:40.609 --> 00:19:45.089 transforming by his spirit, who now lives in us. This is the other 215 00:19:45.170 --> 00:19:51.089 amazing thing. Not only has Jesus Christ risen from the dead and brought us 216 00:19:51.329 --> 00:19:55.319 in with him, with him, but now that he sees is seated at 217 00:19:55.359 --> 00:19:59.839 the right hand of his father, he pours out his spirit, who lives 218 00:19:59.920 --> 00:20:06.319 in us, and changes us, transforms us, conforms us not to the 219 00:20:06.519 --> 00:20:11.509 patterns of this world but to the image of the very son of God. 220 00:20:15.430 --> 00:20:21.980 That's why you don't need to be hopeless. And once this transformation happens, 221 00:20:22.420 --> 00:20:26.700 once as Jesus says, we have been reborn. The conditions are now right 222 00:20:27.259 --> 00:20:33.099 for the conscience to work properly. Instead of the will of God sort of 223 00:20:33.220 --> 00:20:37.569 bouncing off a hard wall, it sinks into us and it convicts us and 224 00:20:37.690 --> 00:20:44.490 we say Ouch, I don't like that, I don't want to live like 225 00:20:44.690 --> 00:20:49.359 that, that's not who I am, that's not what I love. And 226 00:20:49.519 --> 00:20:56.960 then the testing that Paul talks about can really begin. What's our minds have 227 00:20:56.119 --> 00:21:02.200 been transformed by the grace of God, through faith in him. Now we're 228 00:21:02.240 --> 00:21:06.509 in a position where we can test, where we can read his word and 229 00:21:06.789 --> 00:21:11.990 by this conscience that he's given to us, we can discern the things of 230 00:21:11.069 --> 00:21:15.349 the will of God and actually apply them to our lives. We can speak, 231 00:21:15.390 --> 00:21:21.220 seek his guidance and we can ask him questions. We can learn about 232 00:21:21.299 --> 00:21:26.380 holiness, we can grow in love. It's an amazing thing. It's a 233 00:21:26.579 --> 00:21:36.009 transformation. It's an amazing thing. Once this transformation happens, the conditions are 234 00:21:36.089 --> 00:21:41.650 now right for things to bloom and grow, for our bodies and our souls, 235 00:21:41.690 --> 00:21:45.049 our consciences, our minds, our hearts, for everything to start working 236 00:21:45.569 --> 00:21:53.519 properly. It's a process. It will take time and it won't finish until 237 00:21:53.599 --> 00:21:57.880 God's work is done in us, in glorification and in the resurrection. But 238 00:21:59.039 --> 00:22:03.789 for right now, Paul is speaking to us and saying don't be conformed of 239 00:22:03.910 --> 00:22:07.789 this world, especially you have have been changed into the image of God's son, 240 00:22:10.829 --> 00:22:15.470 but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, by faith. Let 241 00:22:15.589 --> 00:22:21.539 the worst spirit continue to work. Don't quench that, but instead by testing 242 00:22:21.700 --> 00:22:26.059 that is sensitive to his work, reading his word, understanding it, growing 243 00:22:26.220 --> 00:22:33.049 in it, come to understand and discern more and more what is good and 244 00:22:33.410 --> 00:22:41.250 acceptable and perfect. God's desire is not just that you would know his will 245 00:22:41.490 --> 00:22:47.920 and rebel, but that you would know it and seek it and do it 246 00:22:48.960 --> 00:22:52.240 so that you might live in him in a way that is pleasing to him. 247 00:22:52.559 --> 00:22:56.519 To be good and acceptable and perfect, to do things that are good 248 00:22:56.559 --> 00:23:02.829 and acceptable and perfect, is to do the things that we, as God's 249 00:23:02.910 --> 00:23:10.029 creatures, were designed for. It's like a machine that is just working perfectly 250 00:23:10.950 --> 00:23:14.579 and you say that's right, that's what I made it to do and it's 251 00:23:14.619 --> 00:23:19.380 just worrying along without any problems. Or a tree that you plant in your 252 00:23:19.420 --> 00:23:23.619 yard and you water and it grows up and it Shade Your House and it 253 00:23:25.059 --> 00:23:30.170 bears for fruit and you say yes, that's what I wanted. When we 254 00:23:30.329 --> 00:23:34.170 are transformed by the Work of God's grace and the spirit working in as, 255 00:23:34.250 --> 00:23:37.490 God looks as at us and says, yes, that's what I wanted, 256 00:23:37.690 --> 00:23:45.759 that's what I designed him for or that's what I designed her for. It's 257 00:23:45.920 --> 00:23:51.680 good, it's acceptable, it's perfect, it's acceptable, it's holy, it's 258 00:23:51.759 --> 00:23:56.630 pleasing and it's wonderful. To live according to the will of God is to 259 00:23:56.750 --> 00:24:03.069 live a life that is pleasing, that is filled with hope and goodness, 260 00:24:03.710 --> 00:24:07.950 a life that is sweet, a life that walks and lives in the grace 261 00:24:07.750 --> 00:24:15.619 of God. by His grace, he gives his word to you. He 262 00:24:15.740 --> 00:24:19.420 doesn't hide it from you, he doesn't store it away in secret places and 263 00:24:19.539 --> 00:24:23.690 make you guess at what he wants. He tells it to you, gives 264 00:24:23.730 --> 00:24:30.170 us instructions. by His grace, he gives us his sanctifying spirit to all 265 00:24:30.250 --> 00:24:37.450 who trust in Jesus, and by that spirit and his transforming power, he 266 00:24:37.529 --> 00:24:41.519 unites us to him that we might seek him and and grow in him. 267 00:24:42.799 --> 00:24:49.079 So, beloved, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed 268 00:24:49.160 --> 00:24:53.670 by the renewal of your mind, that by testing, you may discern what 269 00:24:53.869 --> 00:25:02.990 is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Let 270 00:25:03.029 --> 00:25:06.990 us pray together and ask that God would do this work in US