Refiner's Fire | Week 2 | Bill Bush

And what we're gonna see today is that we need to be set apart, not set off. That's the big idea for today. Be set apart, not set off. In other words, it's gonna talk about how we need to be set apart, and we need to live differently. We need to take a different path than we want to, especially when we're struggling,

when things aren't going our way, when you're suffering. We need to be able to to to not let that set us off because then we get upset, we get mad, we get confused, we try to force things, and we'll often set off on a path to try to make our life feel good that ignores what God has for us.

And that's really what the whole letter of first Peter's about. He's writing to these Christians that have been dispersed. They're starting to suffer some persecution for their faith, so they're actually suffering because they're following Jesus.

And that could really set you off. You can get really upset when that happens. And so this book is about hope. He's about how to have hope till the end. Not hope that this will end soon, but even till the end. And the greater hope is Christ. The greater hope is that we've been saved by the blood of Jesus,

that these sufferings are a way of God to sanctify us, make us more like Jesus. And even if the suffering cost us our life, we are glorified

to be with Jesus forever in all of eternity. We looked at that last week, and we could see that that's that's what we can hold onto, that hope. So the hope that he's talking about is not, I just hang on and believe in Jesus, and he's gonna make everything good again in my life. He's talking about a hope that'll last if it is the end. If this ends up costing you your life to follow me,

there's hope in that. And here's the problem with this whole series. I did a series called Throat Punch not too long ago. This book is very throat punchy, even more so than that series was. If you don't get it, because if you don't get it, you won't get it. If you don't understand what it means to embrace the love of Jesus

and how much he loves you and and what he's called us to be, then this book will not bring you hope or encouragement. It'll it'll upset you. It'll set you off. It'll frustrate you. It's a refiner's fire. And so that's why I'm just gonna tell you some of these sermons, they're gonna challenge the snot out of us.

And they're gonna challenge you, and you're gonna have to make a decision. You can either get mad and be set off, or you can try to say, hey. Can I see things from God's point of view? And and and and if I do, there's incredible hope in here. But it's choose your own adventure.

That's what we're gonna see. So what does this mean, to be set apart, not set off? Let's start in First Peter

chapter one verse 13. I just wanna read to the verse seventeen first here. He says so this, so prepare your minds for action and exercise self control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that'll come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. So you must live as God's obedient children.

Don't slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. Don't be set off when you're struggling. Don't don't set off back to, I'm gonna make it work. I'm gonna go back to my old ways that that to fulfill all my desires for the here and now. He goes, you didn't know any better then,

but now you must be holy in everything you do. Here it is. Here's the key for this whole passage. Be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the scriptures say, you must be holy because I am holy.

And remember that the heavenly father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him, meaning I'm more worried I see from God's point of view. I'm more worried about what God wants than what I'm feeling.

He get he says, especially during your time here as temporary residents. He says, this earth temporary. This isn't the end all and be all. Our walk with God is not all about getting everything squared away and enjoying everything in this world. Now God blesses us. There's lots of incredible moments. We can have joy, but he's saying, but there might be moments that we are called to sacrifice, and we are called to suffer because

we know Christ. And if you think your faith is all about I'm following Jesus to avoid all suffering, that's naive, and it'll never work. It's just, are you going to suffer with a purpose, or are you just going to suffer through a broken world? Because even in the end, what he's saying when it comes to the end of time,

it's saying that even if I arrange everything to work my way in this world and I go after everything that makes me feel good, you literally are going to miss the entire point. And then you're going to, in the end, realize I chased after all the wrong things. I'm gonna miss it. I'm gonna miss out.

But the key there is he says, be holy. Be holy. Well, that word for holy there, a lot of times you hear holy because God's holy, and you think it means sinless perfection. That God's saying, see, here's how you gotta fix it. Be perfect. Be perfect. That's not what that word means.

The word there for holy literally means be set apart. And what it's implying is we are set apart for something different. If I know Jesus, I am set apart.

I'm set apart for a different mission, for a different calling. And and Jesus already died. He says, hey. You already have this salvation. You already have this thing. So you you you've been given it. You've been called to be set apart. You are set apart. Now you need to make the choice of living that set apartness. That's our choice. We gotta choose to live this set apart way. And and and here's the thing. A lot of us don't get it. We're like, hey. I I wanna know Jesus, but I don't wanna be set apart from everything else. I wanna sprinkle Jesus on top of giving me everything that every one of us wants in this world, and I want that, but I also just wanna know Jesus,

and and and and and so we don't really trust Jesus all the way. But what if following Jesus and being set apart is gonna cause you to suffer? You're gonna have to sacrifice. You're gonna have to sacrifice some things. You might have to sacrifice your lifestyle.

Or it might actually cost you your life. Now in our culture, none of us have grown up, our lives have never been threatened to follow Jesus. But you realize most of the world, since Jesus walked this planet, they're they have. And that could happen here.

And what are we gonna do if following Jesus and and and and being on mission, being set apart for him starts to become nothing but cause struggle? How many of us will still follow Jesus? We need to be set apart. That's the throat punch of this. And guess what?

If you under if you've been in the military or in any way understand the military, you get this set apartness Because that's what it means to be a soldier. You've signed up and you've agreed to be a set apart for a mission. That, yeah, you're gonna go fight. You hope you come home.

But you are completely okay with the idea that you might not. That this set apartness might cost you your life. You know, some of the most messed up soldiers are those that signed up in a time of peace because you want the college benefits and the retirement and the medical

and all that. Those are great things. We should honor veterans. If you fought, we should take care of you. I 100% agree with that. But if that's the only reason you're doing it, you're gonna freak out if a war breaks out, and you are not gonna be mentally prepared.

My dad said in in in in war, the best thing you could ever do as a soldier when he was taking the beaches of Iwo Jima, Okinawa, he was fighting in Korea, when he was in Vietnam, He says the best thing you could do to be mentally prepared as a soldier is as you go to take that beach, go, I'm already dead.

You hope you make it, but you have got to embrace the idea that I've already decided I will die in this cause. That's what we're called to be as followers of Jesus, to choose to be set apart. And I think there's a lot of us probably in this room that you have never done that. You come to church,

but you're just worried about the retirement benefits. But are you ready to be set apart in what it means to be a Christian? Now why?

Because this can sound really judgy. Like like it means like, and if you don't do that, God doesn't love you. No. No. There there's there's a why right here. Look at the next two verses. Look what he says. He gives us the why we should be willing. He says, for you know that God paid a ransom to save you

from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors, and it was not paid with mere gold or silver which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless lamb. God chose him as your ransom long before the world began. But now in these last days, he's been revealed for your sake.

Why should I be willing to be set apart and live this? Because that's what Jesus did for us.

He came and he died for us. For God so loved the world, he gave his one and only son. Jesus did that for us to give us the hope to be able to have a future. Because if I just embrace the things of this world, and I don't embrace Jesus, you realize this world will be the closest thing to heaven you ever experience.

But for those of us that follow Jesus, this will be the closest thing to hell we ever experience. And so he's saying because of Christ. So we don't do this for God's grace. We do it from him. We don't do this for God's love. We do it from it.

And we have to trust. Really, the the choice to be set apart is you gotta decide, do you really trust who Jesus is, And do you really believe his plan for how time works and and all of eternity? Or how many of us are like, I wanna believe in Jesus, but I want what I want, and I want it now?

And that's what we always have to decide. And here's what we're gonna see. Being set apart is a discipline. It's a choice. Just like a soldier, it's a discipline. You gotta choose to train. You gotta choose. You gotta be ready. Because he even said there, then verse 13, be prepared.

He said prepare your minds, but not for information. What does say? Prepare your minds for action. We have to get prepared. We have to have discipline. Discipline is what a soldier has. It says in first Timothy that Paul talks about to Timothy about how as a Christian, we are called to be like soldiers,

and he talks about soldiers. You gotta have the discipline of a soldier. He also says that a soldier does not serve to meet the needs of the culture around him. He serves to meet the needs of the one the mission he's called to, basically.

And that's what we need to be with Christ. So it's gonna take this art of this discipline, this choice.

And here's what I think happens to a lot of us as we show up at church, we we live our everyday lives here in this world, and we get stuck. As I show you a little visual here on this continuum of discipline versus drifting.

There it is. And and and and so ask yourself, where are you at? Like, when it comes to discipline, we we as human beings are incredible at compartmentalizing our lives. Very few of us have no discipline in anything. A lot of us have some things we are actually extremely disciplined in,

but then there's other things we're not. And some of us, we're like a weird paradox. I am I am very disciplined in exercise. When it comes to eating right, I'm not even on this screen. I'm over here somewhere hanging out at, you know, Chick fil A and Del Taco and things like that. It's like I'm trying to be better,

but on my best days, I get to about here when it comes to if I'm here, I'm like, wow. I am the greatest eater on the

Man, I used to be a trainer, and I'd show up, and I found out I'm out there for a nutritional consult once in, and I walked in with a a milkshake from a a fast food place. I go, what are we here for? Nutritional consult. I'm like, here's what I'm gonna tell you to do. The opposite of whatever I do. Alright?

But what about when it comes to to our our our faith, our walk? Am I willing to be set apart to what God's called me to be? Do I really have a discipline in my walk with God? This is not a legalism. You're already loved.

It's a discipline to live out what you've already been accepted to call. It's like being you're already in the you're already in the army. You're already there, And you're only there because Jesus bought the price for you to be there to be saved. But now you gotta decide, or do I drift?

Do I just drift? I come. I'm like, alright. I'm I'm here now. I'm like, I don't know. You know gotta answer that question because it is a discipline.

And we'll see. I wanna read from the the from verse 21 till chapter two verse three. And I'm gonna go back and point out that this is really laying out three things that we're called to have discipline in. By the power of the Holy Spirit, because we are saved, we can choose to live this set apartness.

We have our minds prepared for action. Here's the there's three critical things there. There's more things, but these are, I think, three of the most critical things that Peter brings up, that if we live this, we do get hope. We do get hope even through the struggle when we do this. So here we go. Verse 21 says, through Christ, you have come to trust in God,

and you have placed your faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory. You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth. So now, so now, he's saying here's the discipline. You must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters.

Love each other deeply with all your heart.

For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal living word of God. As scripture says, people are like grass. Their beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers and the flower fades. Not my beauty, your guys', but still.

But the word of the Lord remains forever, and that the word is the good news that was preached to you. So verse you know, the reason I'm going into chapter two is chapters and verses were added later. These next three verses is actually continuing this thought. So here we go. So get rid of all evil behavior.

Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment

now that you have had a taste of the Lord's kindness. Now that you have taste. See, he even goes back to that. If you've had a taste, if you don't understand Jesus' love for you, if you don't get it, you won't get it. And this will not sound like an encouragement to hope. It'll just sound like, wow,

I don't really want to do that. And that's the whole point.

The real tough truth is it might make you realize you're not even a Christian at all.

You just show up at church because you've never truly embraced the love of Christ. Or you're someone that's embraced that, but you're just ignoring the Holy Spirit because you don't want to be set apart. And if you don't, then you can't have the hope.

The hope comes from embracing this. So what does he say? There's three different sections of this. Three things that it says that we need to have discipline in, that we can't drift in this. We got to choose this. We got to be prepared to win our minds to act, and here

they are. They're disciplined with your love, disciplined with your mouth, disciplined with your desire for God's word.

And these are actually, if you think of all the things we should choose out of, these are probably the key ones. The first one, discipline with your love. You know in verse 22 there where it says to love? It says first love your brothers, but then it says love deeply.

Peter actually uses two different Greek words for love in there. The first one is to have brotherly love, phileo. That's where we get Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love.

That's a good level of love. That's the choice I love you like a brother, but anyone who's had a brother knows that love like a brother is not always that deep, because it's like, I love you, and now I wanna punch you in the face over and over and over again.

The second word, the deeply part, is it's it's using agape. That's this form of love that's like God's love. It's a sacrificial love. It's a it's a I am gonna love you even if I don't like you, basically. And and I will choose to sacrifice for you out of my love for you.

I will make that. And he's saying as Christians, as the church, we need to love each other that way, that deeper way, that that that that that that level of love that says it's not just a feeling, it's not just a thing, and I think we too often confuse like with love.

You know, we we there are people that you just can't you don't like no matter what. Some of you don't like me right now because I'm calling you out from the word of God to say, hey, if you don't wanna be set apart, you gotta question your faith altogether.

And and and there's other people that you can no matter how hard you try, they just they rub me the wrong way, whatever. Yeah. You can't really choose who you like. You can choose who you love, Cause love is a decision,

and we are commanded to deeply love one another as the church. And if we're gonna deeply love one another, we need to be able to sacrifice one another. We need to step up. So coming being a part of a church is not all about getting your needs met.

We bear each other's burdens. Yeah. You have needs that we need to meet, but you are also called

to be involved at a level that you're not just sitting in a row, you're sitting in circles. You're serving. You're connected, and you are sacrificing some of your time, your money, your resources in order to engage and help others in the church.

As a matter of fact, the Bible says really clearly, how is the world gonna know who Christ is? It says they will know we are Christians because we have the right political platform. No.

It says they'll know we are Christians by our love, and not just love for them. It's more of primarily the way we love one another.

Can you say your love for your church is deep? And that type of love is an action, not a thought, not an idea, not a feeling, not a hopeful aspiration one day you will. It's do I make that choice? Because he's saying you have to embrace that. You have to choose it. You have to finesse. You gotta go a different way. You have to.

The second one is the discipline with your mouth.

Now that's in chapter two verse one, and it's talking about more than just your mouth, but hear me out. When he says get rid of deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. He says all unkind. The deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, those might not be actual things you say with your mouth, but what it's really saying is all of these things eventually come out in the way we talk.

And and and what comes out of our mouth is like, you know, we can try to control our mouth, but what he's really saying is these these deceitful speech. He's really saying deal with the issues in your heart. And a lot of it we live in deceitful ways. We say one thing, we're actually thinking another.

We have jealousy sort of, and then we we won't say that to the person, but we'll bad mouth you another way. It comes out that that what's in our heart eventually comes out of our mouth, no matter how hard you try to control that.

You can try to control it, but it is going to slip out at some point. So if you have a problem with the way you talk to people and the way they think, you really have a heart issue. And you need to look at that, and you need to go, what's going on on the inside?

Well, let me give you a real life example that has to do with my my marriage, and so it'll be here's a little bit of a marriage sermon right here in the middle to give you some hope. And and it's like it comes to the way my wife and I have discussions. Let's just call it that. And

and what's interesting is is is is when we start to get in a fight, we we realize there's some differences in what's going on in our hearts and and what comes out of our mouth. See, when I start to fight, I try to stay very clinical, or you could say even tactical,

which is kind of a way of saying I know how to win a fight. And and and but I like to stick just to the actual topic. And I will hit you and barrage you with nonstop information

and reasons, and a lot of circumstantial evidence as to why my point is accurate. I stick to that. So I think I'm the better arguer. I'm being the good guy. I'm actually doing it right because I'm sticking to the thing. The problem is I don't think about my tone.

And I also don't think about how arrogant and condescending I sound when I do that. And so that really upsets my wife. And she starts to get mad. Well here's the problem. When I start to get frustrated, I'm a microwave. I'll heat up kinda fast, but it doesn't really get overly hot,

and then I cool down really quick. I'm more direct, boom, we're done. My wife is a crock pot.

Heats up slow. But then she gets to this level of heat that if you taste it even six hours later, it still burns your tongue. And then even after a fight, it's like Chernobyl. That ground is gonna be like 2,000 degrees for the next millennium.

You know, it's it's it's and and so it creates an interesting thing. I heat up. I get really serious. I'm mad, so my tone changes, but I stick to the topic. She

heats up slow, which means by the time she's getting mad, she's already probably mad at other things that she didn't say. Because if I'm upset, I say it with her, like, hey, that kinda makes me upset. Then she reacts to that because she thinks she would never say that until she's really worked up, so then she thinks how long? But I don't know, I just, in this moment, that upset me, I said something.

And and and so then we get into these interesting conversations, all of sudden, what she does is when she starts to get mad at her mouth, like, I will be condescending, sound arrogant, but stick to the point. She'll look at the weapons you have when you're fighting. Like, it's like, okay. I'm now in a fight. I don't care. We're not discussing this. We're destroying one another. And they you know, you have your fists. No. There's a knife. No. There's a gun. No. A rifle? No. A bazooka? No. A tank? No. Oh, nuclear codes.

She'll hand me a key. She'll turn her key. Turn your key. I don't wanna turn the key. Turn your key. And it's like and she will say the meanest things. It has nothing to do with anything we've been talking about. Doesn't even reveal

all her past hurt until after she's barraged me. She's basically, I'm gonna nuclear missile you into submission, then I'm gonna tell you what I'm upset about. It is soul crushing. You don't wanna get in a fight with her. It is below the belt and dirty in my mind.

But she's just so frustrated because we don't understand each other. So what comes out is the meanest things. Things that I go when we calm down, I say, you know, I can't unhear that. I'll wake up in the night in sweats hearing her voice saying some of the things she said.

And she'll go, I don't really mean it. But you said it.

And then she says, you're so this and so we have to talk that out. We have to realize that what in my heart, even though I think I'm justified because I stick to the topic, I am being arrogant and condescending. I think I just know better. And then the fact that I didn't go below the belt there and go nuclear,

then I obviously must be right.

See, I look like I am but I probably am not. See, what comes out of our mouth really is what's in our heart.

So am I gonna do a heart check? Am I gonna love deeply? And the order this is in, that that Peter laid this out by the power the Holy Spirit, is pretty impressive to me. Because the key is real love. Well, what's gonna derail real love is our mouth because what's happening in our heart, dealing with it.

And the thing that helps us connect both of these, the way you get to this, is you gotta have discipline with your desire for God's word.

And that's why he said it last. He's emphasizing it. Because look what he says. Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so it'll grow into full

you'll grow into a full experience of salvation. I love what he says experience of salvation. Said, we're saved because Jesus died for us. But unless we choose to be set apart and sanctified and grown, you're never gonna truly fully experience the life that Jesus died to give us. Because we're gonna be too fearful.

Because we don't like to suffer at all, and we're afraid we don't trust God. So if I give up my time, or if I give up this, or if someone starts persecuting me for my faith, I don't want to go down that road. I want to keep myself safe. Like we said last week, we think of as churches, let's circle the wagons and yell at the world.

But we're supposed to be the gate crashers that take the love of Christ into the world, but we don't want to do that because it might be painful, and I might I I want to be comfortable. I get it. We all want to be comfortable, but we need to go against that. And he says the way you do it is you have to crave God's word.

You have to crave it like a baby craves now now there are illustrations Paul uses and others things where he talks about all you want is milk when you should have meat. You know, it's kinda saying the milk is an immature thing. That's not the way Peter is using it in this illustration.

He's not saying you're immature with the milk. What he's saying is we need to crave the word of God like a baby craves food. When a baby craves food, they just know they need it, and they want it, and they want it frequently. But they don't stop and analyze it.

They're not sitting there and trying to, well, break down the macros for me. Your two year old doesn't come in and say, I haven't hit my macros. I need more protein. Like how we try to nitpick the bible that he's saying is we gotta have this basic discipline of a heart towards God's word that says, I need this to exist.

And if you actually have that discipline and crave that, there is no way the only time you're gonna hear the bible is when you're here on the weekend. Just like there is no way you would sit there and go, I'm gonna eat once a week. You just wouldn't do it.

So how do most of us do is we treat the bible, the word of God in our life, like a like a supplement. It's not the primary diet, but, you know, I know I need it. I need a little extra protein powder here and again. You know, it's a multivitamin.

We think of it like a supplement, not the staple of of our our our diet, not the very substance we need. And there is no way around this, guys. This is not a fancily deep sermon.

Basically, of us struggle, and a lot of the fears and a lot of how we can't get set apart and how we give in is you just won't open your bible and read it, and you won't let it read you. Some of us will analyze it. We like to talk about it. So we're like, I read my bible every day. Okay. But what are you reading it for?

To win an argument? To make people feel guilty?

Or are you saying, I need it to read me? I need it to fill me. Because we are listening to so many voices out there all the time.

How can we truly be disciplined in being set apart for what God's called us to do when we're not sitting with him and understanding him and seeing his word. And go to his word first as the answer. What do I need to do with my time? What does God's word say I should do with my money?

What does God's word say I should do with my money? We

say we believe in the word, but we want to live like the world. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. How about you? Where are you at on that? You got to have discipline. Decide to get up every day. I'm going to read the word. And I know it goes bad. We're not perfect. Holy is not perfection.

I go in and out. I'll be honest. As a pastor, there's weeks when I'm like, man, I've I've really struggled to get in the word other than to prepare my sermon, And I have to go before the Lord on that. And I noticed it changes the way my personality, the way I approach things, the way it's just I can feel it.

And I just have to get back and go, God, I'm sorry. And I'm not sorry like, oh, he's mad at me. It's like, I'm sorry that I missed out on the power of your word empowered by your spirit in my life.

Do you really have the discipline to say, I live my life by God's word? Otherwise, we just take Jesus and and we say, okay. It's like taking mayonnaise jar, emptying it, and filling it with Elmer's glue. Alright. It looks like mayonnaise. It seems to be mayonnaise, but try making a sandwich with it.

We end up just making Jesus anything we want him to be that feels good, and we let culture decide who he should be. Instead saying, let the word of God decide the culture I will be.

And you know what happens when does what he says is you have this hope in that because you know that he's gonna fulfill his word. You know he's gonna do this. And he knows that even if you go through the worst things, can have this peace that surpasses all understanding

when you engage in being set apart. In other words, it gives you this weird protection that you can get through the suffering. You can get through it and and and have a peace. And it's kinda like this. Let me give you a military illustration. It's funny. Have you ever seen any or read about, like, when the military does, like, these simple, like, war games, maneuvers? Like, they're not gonna shoot at each other for real. So they'll have these rules. They'll have monitors out there, and they have different rules of what you can do to engage. And and this one was kind of interesting. They told them, here's the rules. Alright. You get so many grenades, even though you have no grenades, and and you and you have bullets, and they say, you go out, if if if you see an enemy combatant and and they don't see you and and you're within a certain range, you can yell out, blah blah.

That means you threw a grenade, and, like, 99% of the time, the monitor says, you're dead. You've taken that soldier off the playing field. If you're within a certain range then and you don't have grenades, you can say, bang bang. You shot them.

And and if you get really close, like, say, you come up on them, the first person that says, stab, stab, wins that fight.

And and and so you can those are the things you can do. And then they're out doing this. They're out walking around, doing their maneuvers, and one soldier sees this enemy combatant coming by, and so he yells, blah blah.

And and the guy looks at him and starts walking towards him. He's like, I just blew him up with a so then he goes, bang bang. And he keeps walking at him. Then he gets right up on him. He goes, stab, stab. And the guy pushes him over. And he's like, what are you doing? You're breaking the rules. And the guy looks at him. He goes, rumble, rumble. I'm a tank.

Steps over him and keeps going.

You realize when we have the discipline to live set apart, we get the power of God's grace, the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of God's word to come alive in our life. And you know what? The enemy can lob, lob, bang bang, stab stab all he wants, but we are tanks,

And we will roll right through it. It's still terrifying, but you're only a tank if you climb into it. You have to choose to climb into it. Otherwise, you're out there on your own.

And and and and just my own thought in all the years I've been in ministry,

guys, I believe so many of the men in this room that you say are Christian. You are letting the enemy completely manipulate you. Whatever reason why you do not get into God's word, he has fooled you, and you're buying it. And he's playing you for a fool.

All those things you think you need to do to be a good husband, good father, and lead mean nothing

if you're not a man of the word. That's more important than anything you've put in front of your time with God.

I guarantee it.

See what I mean? Like, if you don't get it, you won't get it. Sounds like a throw punch when it's supposed to be hope. But when we trust in the hope that Christ gives us, we're tanks.

And at least we'll suffer for the right thing instead of suffering for stupid stuff. So how do I do this? How do I do this? Well, I think the easiest answer of how you start to do that is you go back to the very first verse. The very first line of verse 13. So prepare your minds for action.

So prepare your minds for action. What does that mean? It seems we need to think with the end in mind.

See, a lot of times we think with just what's going on. We think with I want the end of this in mind when you really gotta think in the end of it. Where is God taking me? What's the end of time? Where are we gonna be? He keeps talking about the glory when Christ returns. All this stuff. We need to think with the end in mind, and then we need to choose to think how God thinks. He thinks with the end in mind. He knows where this is going.

And and and so if you look at Romans twelve one and two, it lays it out really clearly there when it says how we need to do this. When it says prepare your minds, it's not about information. Somebody just come to church, give me a good sermon, give me more information. It's it's about transformation.

So Romans twelve one and two says this, and so dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you, like I'm doing right now, to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Why do we do it? Because of what he's already done for us. He goes, let them be a living and holy sacrifice. If you're gonna follow Christ, you're gonna have to sacrifice.

But we get to. The kind you will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Showing up once a week is not just the word, it's living your life, being set apart is how we worship God.

And then verse two says, don't copy the behavior and customs of this world. So many as we try to mix Jesus in, and then we get frustrated and we get set off when Jesus isn't giving me what I want, because what you want is what the world wants.

Jesus will give us everything we need and desire. It's like, you know how the best way to get everything you want? Is want God's will. If you want God's will in your life, 100% of the time you're gonna get what you want.

And and and so he says, don't. But let God transform you. Here it is. Transform you into a new person. How? By changing the way you think.

By changing it, then you will learn to know God's will. You'll really start to understand it, which is good and pleasing and perfect. You won't see it on it. If you don't change the way you think, you won't see God's will as good and pleasing and perfect. You'll fight with God. You'll be afraid. You'll be scared. You won't trust him. You just won't do it.

You'll just get stuck. But when you change the way you think, and and sometimes it says the renewing of your mind. I like it in New Living because it's saying what it's actually saying.

It's it's the renewing of your mind. People are like, oh, that just means cram more information. No. It's like what Peter said was prepare your minds for action. In other words, what that's saying is that the word in there, the news for mind, and and and to change it, it means to actually not have the right answer,

but have the right perspective. It's saying the only way you're gonna get this is you have to choose to quit looking at it from your point of view and say, I'm gonna trust God's point of view.

That's how you begin to do this. You just have to make a choice. I'm gonna put my faith that I'm gonna look at these things from God's point of view. I'm not gonna argue with God about my point of view. I'm gonna walk over and say, God, I'm gonna look at it from your point of view. And that's why discipline in the word of God is so important, because where do you find God's point of view?

Right here. And we try to put God's point of view, our point of view onto God all the time. And a lot of our prayers are just like, but we have to choose God's point of view on what this world is about, what our life's about, how it works. Do you really do that?

And this has to come out in really practical ways. Like I said, the two primary ways that we we we really how we answer that question what we do with our time and our money. That'll tell you exactly which point of view you take.

Do you love deeply enough to serve in your church? Do you love deeply enough and know God's word that I will trust God first with my money, not last?

And here's where the enemy twists you because you're not in the word, is you hear someone say that, it's all over the social media, it's like churches just care about our money. Now there are people that are, you know, they're not true churches. They're trying to rip you off, and they're like, yeah. That can happen.

Just like there's there's good places to buy a car, there's bad places to buy a car. Just like there's like, you know, that's true. But you throw that up as an idea to say, that's why I don't have to give. Well, that's not right. That's the worldly point of view.

And the reason you get mad, then you get mad at the church. I'm saying money. Some of you are mad at me right now. And the only reason I bring it up is because we have the problem with money. I guarantee the number one thing that's not being listened to on what God's word says how to live this life and why he gave you resources and what you're supposed to do with it, number one thing being ignored in this room is what you're doing with your money. I guarantee it.

And what's funny is in our culture, money really determines almost everything in our lifestyle.

So if you won't trust God with your money, do you really trust God at all?

Probably not.

See, this is where it gets real. You just gotta make a choice. And sometimes to trust God is scary and painful. I'm not going to be the preacher that says, oh, you start trusting God with your money. He's going to give you all these no. That's not how it worked. That's not the plan isn't

invest in what God told you to do so you can get rich materialistically. You'll get rich in that he will take what you give and use it to transform this world in ways that we could never do and we would never do spending that money on whatever else we're going spend it on. And it teaches us to trust him, not my money.

It's a real practical point right there. It's the only one I know how to go that just like really should put headrests on these where you can just sit with your head back so I can direct shots right there. But I'm with you guys. Every one of these things I challenge, challenges me right back.

Because we live in a world that tells us to do the opposite. Lewis says force our world. Force it to work our way. Force it. And even when we approach God, let's force God to give me what I want. Finesse. We gotta be willing to do that. How about you? You know, my mom was a great example of this.

And I realized where she learned that kind of a strength was from her mom. And I was thinking about my grandma the other day because I was in the pool with my grandson, and and he's he's at this phase now where he wants you to watch him do stuff. And and it might be something like it's usually something like this.

Which actually, he's not even at the age where you're supposed to be able to do that. So it is pretty impressive. He's been doing it for months. We can jump, and he'll jump off the stairs, like, four stairs at a time and land perfectly, sticks it.

But he he he's and what he'll do is he'll look at you, and and whoever's around, he'll say all the names, but I'll sit there and he's like, watch pop. Watch pop. Watch pop. And he'll keep saying it, and he is serious. He will not stop saying that and do what he's doing until you stop,

and he looks right at you. He has this intense glaze. He's looking, and he's making sure he wants direct eye contact with you. You have to look direct, and if he doesn't think you're looking seriously enough, he keeps saying it. Watch pop. Watch pop. And you have to then you have to get direct eye you have to hold said eye contact,

and you have to say, I'm watching. If you don't do that, he'll keep saying it. And then he does it, and and does something silly. And then he actually coaches you what you're supposed to do after. He does it. He goes, yay. Like,

cheer me. You know? And I'm like and and it's cute. It has nothing to do with my closing story. I just thought it was cool. No. Here's what it did. It it reminded me as I'm sitting here, he's calling me pop and I'm having these cool moments that I didn't grow up with any grandpas.

My grandpas were all dead. I mean, technically, I had a grandpa. I called him dad because he was so old when I was born. He would literally, his friends were my friend's grandfathers. But I didn't have any grandpas, and I only had the one grandma, my mom's mom.

And I did have a great grandma, her mom. Saw her a couple times. She lived to be 102. It was weird talking I remember talking to a grandma that was 40 years old when World War one ended. Bizarre. But they were tough, and I realized my grandma totally epitomized what I just preached.

She was the one person I remember growing up that was truly just a Christian that whole time, praying for me. It didn't stick for me till I was in high school, but always my mom ran away from the faith, came back, but my grandma was consistent. And she went through a lot of tough stuff. She sacrificed.

She suffered for following Christ. Financially, in so many ways, gave up her time. She was always serving. She was tough. She's a little bit scary to me at times. She was that kind of tough. But she taught me things, and she would just be so direct.

I remember she would always come up to our house. She lived in a small town in Southern Ajo, Arizona. You'd probably have driven through it, stopped to get insurance to go into Mexico and get gas one last time. But but

she would drive up because she was always doing this women's ministry driving on. Mean, she was 81 and still driving all over the state and just pouring in into this women's ministry stuff and just serving God and giving up. Like she'd have no money, and there'd be a mom that was a single mom, and she would give her her savings account. Like she would just she was just awesome

in that. Well she came up and she moved in with us when I was in just going into college. She was, like, 83.

She was still driving around. And the reason she moved in, she had to go to some doctors because she was getting weak, like, tired, like, couldn't drive, almost crashed the car, almost fell asleep. And so they were trying to figure out what's going on. And and the doctors came back and said, you have this heart issue.

Now it won't kill you right away. You could live fifteen years, ten years, but what you're gonna do is you're not gonna ever get any stronger. You're just gonna continually go weaker and weaker. The way you feel right now is the strongest you'll be. And she's like, well, that's not acceptable. I can't

get out there and serve the Lord. And and and they go, well, there is a procedure we can do. But at your age and what's going on, I'll they'll go we'll be honest. It could just as easily kill you as cure you. And my grandma says, sign me up.

My mom was even, mom, are you sure you want this? She's like, sign me up. But what if you die? And she goes, what do you mean what if I die? I mean, way before Braveheart said this, my grandma looked at my mom and said, everyone dies, but did you truly live? She's like, if this goes the way it goes,

my idea of living is not just taking up space and breathing longer.

She basically said, for me to be alive is I want to serve Christ. I want to share the gospel. I wanna be out there doing what I'm called to do. And if I gotta sit in a room and stare at a wall because I don't have the energy to even get up, I would rather die, go to glory, be with Jesus, be all perfect and healed, and be with John, her husband that had died thirty years before.

She understood that life was more than just breathing. It was more than just getting things. It was so much more than just this world that she says, I will take the risk of something that might kill me because it's better than just sitting here. And so she did the procedure, and she died. She never woke up.

They came and said it went horribly wrong. Her heart is just all these things going bad. She goes, she's not going to wake up. And and and and we took her off the sedation. She's kind of sedated. She's in there. And then the doctor, the nurse said, she can probably we're we're confident she can hear you, she's but probably not gonna respond in any way. So if you wanna go talk to her, you can go talk and I wasn't sure. Like, did they just tell you that, or can't she really hear us? So I was like I go in after my mom, and then I walk in.

And I remember walking into that room. I remember just sitting down and looking at my grandma, and now I knew the Lord, and I had decided. I mean, this is right around the time right after the my knee that I talked about, and I had that traumatic, like, oh, I gotta make a decision. Am I all in? Am I gonna trust God

no matter what? And I had decided, and I realized that, man, I've watched my grandma do what I've just confronted with her my whole life.

And I didn't know what else to say. So I leaned over. I grabbed her hand and I whispered in her ear. I said, thank you, grandma. I quoted in Timothy. I said, grandma, thanks for being an example.

You have fought the good fight. You have finished the race.

I just pray I can live in the example that you've done. And you're right. Go be with grandpa and Jesus. And when I said Jesus, she squeezed my hand. I thought maybe that was involuntary. So I kept talking. And every time I said, Jesus, she squeezed my hand.

And then she died. I was the last person to talk to her.

That's what Peter's talking about.

That's a hope until the end.

I'd rather die that way than live a bunch of meaningless stuff.

I'd rather be set apart than constantly set off.

It's your choice. Father God, I thank you.

I thank you even for the tough challenges because these challenges are actually where hope is found. So it's a simple prayer for me, everyone in this room, anyone listening online. May we see how much you love us. May we embrace that love and that grace

and trust it so much that we choose to have our mind renewed, the changing of how we see things, to see things from your point of view in order to have the discipline of being set apart.

May we walk through that with the courage like my grandma.

I pray that in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Thank you for joining us online today. If you need prayer, connect with us on rockpoint.io under the Need to Talk tab. Be sure to follow us on social media to stay up to date with what's happening here at Rock Point.