The Vex of Conformity

Introduction

We would forget that he died for us. That’s it. It’s kind of a trick question. He wants us to remember the significance. Angel of John. You’re not going to forget Jesus died for you, are you? But what could you forget? The significance of that. He’s not concerned that you’re going to wake up on the Lord’s Day and go, no, let me see. What am I going to do today? Let’s see. I’m supposed to go somewhere and I’m supposed to do something when I get there. He’s not afraid of that. He’s not afraid that you’re going to forget what the first day of the week means to you, what you need to do. He’s afraid, maybe a phrase is not the right word, but he’s implemented this so that spiritual people will understand the spiritual significance of what we’re doing.

That’s the point to that. That’s the point. Yeah, Jim. I think of it in terms of keeping it present in our mind. So being important things tend to stay present in our mind. So while we may not forget that Jesus died for us, that might not be on our mind as we go about what we do during the day. Because it’s really, really, really important to us. And then in being present in our mind shapes how we see things. Good. Good. Isn’t it true that his death really should shape how we think about everything? That’s the point of that, right? And that’s the difficulty. We we get sometimes we get lost in that. We kind of need to be reminded of that, okay? So let’s talk, let’s talk for a few minutes.

1. Why Is a Spiritual and Eternal Perspective Hard?

It’s 1115. Let’s go ahead and talk about this for just a few minutes. I want to ask this question. What is a spiritual and eternal perspective hard? Let’s think about this passage here in 2 Corinthians 4. Why is that hard? Let’s think about some reasons why having that perspective is hard. Okay. Yes, ma’am. Well, we live in the physical world, and we have our jobs and we have our activities and all things, and we’re just surrounded by it. And so it’s it’s very easy to just get caught up in all of that and lose our perspective. Yeah, good. That’s a pretty that’s a pretty good general way to say that, right? Very good. Yeah. I think some of that answer goes back to where we started in in James chapter 4 and verse 3.

He says, Because you ask with wrong motives. I think our motives are misguided sometimes. Good frequently, perhaps. Very good. What else? All good. Anything else? I got some ideas, I’m gonna throw it at you. Yes, ma’am. Kenny, a few moments ago we talked about what does Jesus expect? And we talk about to be reminded, but mostly to be reminded that we are washed and we are forgiven and cleansed. If we would bring that to mind more often, that’s the significance of it. But that’s very basic, but that’s it’s very basic. We’re establishing that, but what did Paul say? Or what did Peter say? I gotta own a remind you of that. I want to remind you of how important these basic fundamental things are to you so that you don’t forget them.

When I pass, that’s what I want you to remember about that. That’s I think that’s why Jesus said, I want you to remember me. Okay? Let it let it, yeah, we do it, we do it weekly, okay? And I personally think that’s what we need to do. I think there are reasons why we do it weekly, okay? Yeah, can uh, I I think this goes back to uh when you first heard about uh talked about stirring up because we can have that love, but if it’s not stirred up, that’s to no effect. The church in Ephesus and Revelation is a good example. They’ve lost, they’ve lost the first word, right? Yeah. Any other comments about any of that? Well, it’s tough because it’s unseen. Yeah, yeah, that’s that’s one of the points that I want to make.

It’s tough because it’s unseen. We we want to see things, right? That’s what we want. We want to be able to see those kind of things, and I think it makes it particularly tough because it is unseen. And and let me let me say this. We don’t see the full benefit now, do we? Do you see the full benefit of being spiritual right now? Let me let me ask it a different direction. Do you see benefit in being spiritual right now? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Don’t you? Can you imagine your life being lived in an unspiritual kind of way? Can you imagine your life being lived away from God? Could could you live your life that way? Sure. Most people do, right? But what kind of life is it?

Can you imagine going through the difficulties that we go through in this life without God? I find that sometimes hard to imagine. We were in Tampa last couple days, and my sister in law was talking about a job that she has at the hospital, and and and when her group gets together, they always ask her to pray. And I said, Why is that? She said, Because nobody else believes in God for the most part. I shouldn’t say nobody believes in God, but she said, no, the rest of them know how. And I’m thinking, how do you how do you live life without God? That practically, I don’t even get that. I don’t even understand that. But the point is that we don’t see that full benefit yet.

But we do see some benefit. When will we see the full benefit? When faith becomes sight, right? That’s what’s what Paul says. When faith becomes sight. So what does that take now in order for us to have that? That takes a serious amount of faith, right? It has to. Okay? Yeah. Jim? It’s not just a either or, it’s a progression, of course. Right. And so you don’t understand it because you have a spiritual mindset now. But those who don’t have a spiritual mindset have no issues. So having a spiritual mind helps you to see spiritual benefits. Absolutely. And the more spirituality, the more you see. And it kind of becomes a cycle that you start to neglect that spirituality. And it can go the other way.

That’s right.

Even during this COVID times, I know people were all mental. Couldn’t handle it. I mean, seriously. I mean, because they didn’t have God. And how do we how have we handled it? Because we know. It’s beyond COVID. It’s beyond, it’s beyond this earthly life, right? So what? I don’t I don’t mean this lightly, but so what if we die? So what if we die from COVID? We’re going to die, right? So but our perspective, again, is that it’s this eternal perspective. And it is, it’s very, very hard to have. But I think obviously it becomes important for us to have that kind of perspective, right? Yeah, John. So I tell you what people turn to when they don’t have God. You know what it is, and everybody else does.

Alcohol drugs. Every world. Because they’re about to lose their minds so they do all those things. That’s right. That’s right. And I want to talk about that now. Let me ask a question. Do we need to take a break? Or we need to keep going. All right. Well, John, John’s. How old are you, John?

John’s a man in his older, in his older age. Okay, well, 75. He’s a man of 75. He’ll have to go three more times before we quit this morning.

Alright. Hey, listen, we’re going to keep going, but if you if you need to, I don’t mean this to sound bad. Should I be talking about this to all of you? Hey, it is what it is. Everybody’s got to go, right? So if you need to go, just get up and go. Let’s just do that. So let’s turn, let’s turn to Ephesians 4. Let’s talk about this for a few minutes, okay? And it’s not going to, it won’t be fine if you need to get up. Just if I can encourage you, though, when you get up and leave, come back. That would that would be that would be my preference. John, John, just since he left, I’ll talk about it. He just alluded to something that I think is right.

2. Being Carnally Minded Is Easy

And I want to talk to you about it from Ephesians 4. This is part of the difficulty, okay, with us with us having the right mind.

Why is it hard to be spiritually minded? Because being carnally minded is easy. It’s easy. And it’s not only easy, there are things about it that are good. There are things about it that gratify us. We’re going to talk about that now from Ephesians 4. Look at Ephesians 4, beginning verse 17. Now, remember, Paul’s talking to Christians. He’s not talking to people who are ungodly, at least in theory. He’s talking to people who are obedient. Okay? And here’s what he says. He says, This I see, verse 17, this I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind. What does when he uses the word walk? What’s he talking about?

What you look. What you look to conduct yourself, right? So he says, I testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk. And how does he say verse 17? How is it that they walk? Vanity or the futility of their mind, right?

3. Intellect, Emotion, and Will

Let’s let’s let’s let’s talk. Let me just talk a little bit more. Having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness to work all uncleanness with greediness. There are there are three factors in you doing what you do. There are three factors in me doing what I do. There’s really four, but we’re going to talk about three because everybody has the three, not everybody has the fourth one. Okay, here are the three factors. It requires intellect. Intellect. It requires you knowing something. Okay. We all have an ability to grasp. We all have an ability to gain knowledge. We all have that ability to understand.

That’s part of our intellectual process. And then when we know something, we decide to do something. And may I ask a question? What typically, what typically helps us decide what we’re going to do or not do? Listening to God. Listening to God, okay. That that’s the fourth thing that not everybody has. Instead of asking the question and making y’all guess, let me just tell you what’s in my in my head. That’s what I have to do sometimes. A lot of what we do is driven by emotion. Right. When you go out to eat, what do you order? What you like. You know, it’s it’s interesting. I never go out to eat and go, you know, I don’t like that. I’m not, I think I’ll order that because I don’t like it.

I order it because I like it. And typically I order it because there’s a lot to it, and I like to eat a lot of things that I like. It’s emotional. Eating is emotional. Now, should there be other aspects to eating? Yeah, because if there aren’t, what happens? You die early. Okay. I know I’m not the picture of health. It’s because I like to eat, and I like to eat too much, and I like to eat sometimes of things that are not good for me. Okay? It’s been telling us that he’s the picture of health.

Okay. Okay. You probably need to worship elsewhere.

I appreciate it. That’s good. That’s good. Okay. Well, the point is, and now I’ve got to get my mind back on track. Thank you, John. Yeah, we we we it’s what we like and don’t like, okay. Uh when I mentioned, you know, I moved to Alabama. I’m I’m just gonna say this, Kent. I’m so tired of hearing roll tide. It makes me nauseous. It never gets old. It never gets old to you, that’s right, okay. But, see, I’m a I emotionally dislike it. He emotionally loves it. That’s part of what makes all this great. I get that, right? Okay. But we have likes and we have dislikes. And then, and then we make choices. So we have intellect, emotion, and will. We decide things. We choose things that we’re gonna do.

Okay. That happens to all of us. The only difference in a person who is a believer is there’s a there’s a fourth thing that’s added to that that has to do with what’s right and wrong. What is that? The guide book. And what does that what is that in our head? It’s our it’s it’s the law, but it’s our conscience. Okay? We’re driven by something because we see it differently. May I ask you a question? Does that shock you that so many people are just doing whatever they want to do? Does that shock you? No, why would they not? Why would that’s my point? Why would they not? Let me ask you a question. And I’m and I’m gonna be very honest about this. As men are women.

But if you didn’t have a conscience, and your conscience said to you, you know what? God has given me urges. And these urges are from God, but yet they have to be disciplined and they have to be controlled, and and they have to be used within the guidelines that God has given me. Right? A person who has a conscience is going to do that, right? And sometimes even those of us with a conscience, we may violate our conscience and do something we didn’t do. But why wouldn’t that surprise you that nobody else in nobody else? But but the world, they they don’t use that conscience to decide those things. Why does it surprise us that people are sleeping with whoever they want to sleep with as often as they want to sleep with without giving any consideration to what’s right and wrong?

That shouldn’t surprise us at all. Why? Because they’re walking in the futility of their mind. In essence, they don’t have information that tells them that’s not what you should do. Right? Am I right about that? And what happens to us when we lose our mind, when we’re not thinking right, when we’re when we’re we’ve missed what it is that God wants us to do, or we or we take time off or whatever, we make mistakes. And what what I think what Paul is saying here is when you don’t have God in your mind, you’re going, you’ll do anything that you’re big enough to do. They’re past feeling. What happens when you’re past feeling? You do whatever you’re big enough to do. Right. And that’s what a lot of people do.

4. Christ Has Taught You Differently

Look at verse 20. But you have not what? You’re not so learned Christ. Christ has taught you differently. See, he goes on to say the truth is in Jesus. Okay? The truth is in Jesus. You’ve learned differently than that. Let me ask you this question. Do you, for the most part, know how you ought to live your life morally? Why? Because most of us have been in this book. Many of us have been raised by people that helped us understand this book, right? We know. We know how we ought to act in this life. I’ve told this story multiple places, and I’ll tell it again because it’s made such an impact in my to me, it makes a point. When I was a boy, I have two sisters.

When I was a boy, the three of us would travel with my parents, we’d go to we’d go to LA, Lower Alabama. Where my grandparents lived, my dad was raised in Evergreen. Anybody ever heard of Evergreen, Alabama? Okay, a few of you have. My dad was Keneca County Sausage. That’s what you know about Evergreen, Alabama. But anyway, we would go to Evergreen, and when we were small, we would leave early in the morning. Dad would wake us up about four, and we’d we’d we’d sleep. The kids would sleep, we’d get in that back seat. And the first new car we ever owned was a 1967 Star Chief Executive. Okay, Pontiac. First, I can still smell it. And we’d we’d get in the car, Dad wakes up about four, and I figured out they’d wake us up and we’d leave while it was night, so we’d sleep a while.

I know I know the tricks now. But we would sleep, and Dad, we’d sleep for a couple hours, and when we’d get to Memphis, we’d cross the Mississippi River, and there’s a big bridge. When you’re from Balknob, Arkansas, like we were, when you get to the bridge, the big bridge, that’s a big deal. But so we we’d say, Dad, when we get to the bridge, wake us up. So right before we’d crossed the bridge, dad would wake us up and we’d go across the bridge. Well, once we crossed the bridge, we were awake, we were ready to roll. And so dad would drive, mom would be in the passenger seat, I’d sit in the middle, Nita would be to my left, and Tamar would be to my right, and and basically we we had about six more hours to get to Evergreen, Alabama on our way to see our grandparents.

And so after about, oh, I don’t know, 20 or 30 minutes, we’d start, we’d start creating problems with each other. You know how that stuff goes. I’m the only boy, had two sisters younger than me, so I was the pesterer. They were the pastees. And I would pester my sisters, and and and they’d get aggravated and they’d start getting loud. And my mother, she she was, she’s very kind. Both my parents still alive, thankfully. But my mom would, she’d turn around and she’d say, Listen, kids, we got several more hours. Y’all just need to calm down. Okay, mom, we’ll be fine. We’ll be fine. And we’d be quiet for a little while. And in a few minutes, we’d back at it again. And my mom would say, All right, now listen, we got to figure something out because y’all y’all gonna have to stay under control.

I say, okay. Oh, and I was kind of I was kind of in control of it. I said, Mom, I got it. We’ll be fine. Of course, she knew she knew the problem. But but that car, that back seat of that car was divided. They had those vinyl seats, and there were ridges in those seats, and it divided the back seat into perfect thirds. There were three kids. Anita, Anita’s area, my area, and Tamra’s area. And mom would say, Y’all stay in your area. Just stay in your area. Don’t get in each other’s area. Well, what I would do is I’d put my fingers down. And I this would be, and I just barely put my finger over into Tamara’s area, and I’d barely put my finger in, and they’d just go bananas.

I mean, it was I they they’d rather me sat with them in the seat than to do what I was doing. Because I was just irritating them. I did it, it just drove them crazy. And pretty soon it was all out war in the back seat. And when my dad, my dad hadn’t said a word this whole time. And when he had had enough, he would reach back. Now I want you to get a picture of where he is. He’s driving. My mother’s here, he’s driving. And I want you to remember where I’m sitting. Where am I sitting? In the middle of the back seat. He’s driving. He has two arms, but he’s driving with one. Okay? He reaches back without even looking, without taking his off the road.

And where do you think that lands? Where do you think that hand lands when he’s looking back? It lands right above my kneecap and he squeezes. He knows whose kneecap it is. He squeezes and he says, these one, just one word. Behave. That’s all he said. Now, we love our mama. But we didn’t think, at least at that point in time, that mom saying something like that wasn’t going to do the damage that Dad did. But when Dad said behave, guess what we did? We behaved. I’m going to tell you what we never did. I never, when Dad did that, I never said, Dad, would you mind pulling over and explaining to me what you mean by that? I never said that. Because why? I didn’t need to.

Why? Because we had already been what? We’d already been taught. When he said behave, I knew what I was doing wrong. He had already taught me. Okay? I didn’t need him to pull over, explain it to me anymore. And I’m gonna I’m convinced, my friends, that Christians, people who have this perspective, people who have this right mindset, the problems that we have, it’s not that we don’t know what we ought to do. What’s the problem? We don’t want to do it. It’s not a matter of, well, what are you talking about, Lord? What do you mean I can’t do it? What do you mean you don’t want me to do that? What do you mean you don’t want to have that mindset? It’s not that we, it’s not that we’re questioning that.

The problem is we don’t want to do what we know we ought to do. That’s the problem. It’s a problem for most all of us. It’s a problem for me. You agree with that? And it’s because this mindset that I’m supposed to have, sometimes I lose this mindset. And so what does, again, look at Ephesians. What does Paul say in verse 23? You need to be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Verse 22, that you put off concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lust, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Why? Why in the world would he say that to these people? They’re Christians. Once again, why? Because we forget. We forget, and we need to be stirred up.

Okay? About that. I don’t want to make a few more comments, but do you any any comments about any of that? Feel free. Yeah.

It has to be daily. Otherwise, it gets away from us. Because Mel’s talking about distraction. It piles off. Yeah. We don’t make an effort to do it on a daily basis. If we do it on a daily basis, I think I’m not to say it’s easier, but it helps to develop that attitude about love. Love. It’s an ongoing thing that happens every day, right? Good. Yeah. Well.

But I see, walk by the spirit, then you’ll not quite find the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit. And the desires of the spirit against the flesh. There’s that constant battle. Even when I thought of the topic, the conformity, there’s the other side to conform into what Christ wants us to, and it’s a constant battle. Because even among Christians, with Christians, we ought to never to fool ourselves that oh, it’s just an easy walk over. Just look at how even Christians dealt with cult, the election, everything you can think about. Christians, right? Some of the things weren’t kind. And it’s because of that battle. Yes, sir. Joe comments, on your comments. Anyone else? See, that that’s the point we’re making.

This is what it’s not hard for us to say the battle that people who aren’t believers have. We see that. They don’t have a battle. They just do what they want to do. But which a battle for us. Because even though we’re believers, we still struggle with it. We we still want to think the way that the way that the Gentiles think. We still want to walk the way the Gentiles walk. And again, be reminded, Paul says, that’s in the futility of your mind. That’s not going to accomplish anything for you. Okay. Any other comments about that?

5. Vanity of Vanities, All Is Vanity

Let’s talk about, let’s talk about for just a minute. Let’s talk about this business of vanity.

Because I think this is this is the thing that, if I can say it this way, how we think about things, I think puts us in the wrong, in the wrong mindset. When when the wisdom writer in Ecclesiastes 1 and verse 2 says, Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Okay. What is vanity?

Okay, I want to offer. Let me ask you a question. Because I’ve heard for a long time that what vanity is, and I think there’s an aspect to it that is meaningless. But I want to ask you a question. Is your life meaningless? It’s meaningless without God. It’s meaningless without God. That’s right. But is your life itself meaningless? If let me ask you, are is the life of a person that’s not living for God, is it meaningless? No. There’s some aspect of that that has meaning, right? Well but but how is his or her life without God? How is that a life that is meaningless? How’s another way for us to say that? Yeah. An evil person can do good things. Okay. But in the end, which which we all should be striving for, according to Paul and Jesus, and everything we read in the in the in his word, we should be aspiring to be with him for all eternity.

We talked about earlier. The evilness in their life is and the good things that they do is not going to get that result. Okay. So that’s vanity. Their life is vanity. Okay. That’s good. Yeah. I have some moments here that says you have success, but that doesn’t last long. It disappears.

It disappears. It’s brief. Right? It’s brief. Is there anything in your life that has happened to you that gave you pleasure that’s lasted your whole life?

I can’t think of anything. In terms of that immediate pleasure that’s lasted my whole life. Okay. I think what the wisdom writer says is your life is meaningful, but what happens in your life happens in short spurts. It’s meaningful, but it’s meaningful only for a moment. You know, I used to think, I just think that, you know, I used to coach, okay. And I know you might not believe this, but occasionally my teams would win games against opponents that were better than us. And I can remember a few victories, and I’d be thinking, man, this is the greatest feeling. This is the greatest feeling that I’ve ever had. And then we’d get on the bus and the bus wouldn’t start. And then I’d forget about what just happened.

And by the time I got home, I was so mad that the bus didn’t start, and it was three o’clock in the morning that I’d even forgotten that we played the game, much less won the game. And it just dawned on me. This stuff that we get so excited about, it just doesn’t last. None of those kinds of pleasures last. And that may be a trivial kind of thing, you know. I’m sorry. What were you gonna say? Was it Solomon that concluded that all life was vain? I’ve struggled with that because you know, even as a Christian, um, I don’t think life, to me, life isn’t vain. I have so many opportunities to influence people constructively, change their lives. You know, you’re talking about coaching. I teach golf.

I have such a good impact with my juniors to not only improve their golf games, but to improve their character in their life. And if I get an opportunity to share the gospel, it’s it’s even greater. And I have, and on the opposite side of that, I know there’s a lot of serious things I have in my life struggled with, things that I wish I could go back and change. But I have often thought that this world with the right perspective and the right spiritual mind prepares us for heaven. If if heaven was just given to us on a silver ladder, I don’t think we’d have half the appreciation that we’re going to inspire to have when we get there. And of course, that’s something that’s incomprehensible right now.

But I me personally, I I could not go into the next day or the next month or a year thinking that my life was vain and not per purposeful. Yeah. Great point. But your life, but you know what your life is, even though it is purposeful, even though there’s great things that you can do now that you wake up every day and want to do now, you know that in the end that what really matters is what is what awaits you. You you know that. That’s right. But but I see my life is worthwhile.

You know, I want to take advantage of that. And every time I stumble, I want to learn from it and share it with others so that that they know. Particularly when you have your own children, a lot of us don’t want them to go down the same path. Yeah. Some of us that weren’t raised at the church. But I understand that, sure. Yeah, great point. Yeah. When Solomon wrote this, he actually makes that very point that everything is vanity except for fearing God and keeping his commandments. Doing the things that’s that’s right to him. And this is coming from the perspective of not just one that’s endowed with much wisdom from by the grace of God, but was wealthy. He experienced it. He had everything that every carnal thing that you could ever imagine it, he experienced.

He did. And this is his conclusion. Yeah, that’s exactly why. So it’s it’s an and you know what else, what else he says? He says, enjoy life. He tells you that. Eat, drink, and be merry. He talks about enjoy your life, enjoy the wife of your youth. I mean, well, all of the things that that that the ways we love. He says, enjoy that, but keep it, keep it in perspective. Know that you need to fear God, keep it in mind. Because that’s ultimately that’s all that really matters. But yeah, but but have this perspective that life is important, but it’s going to be brief. It’s going to be brief. Look at Ecclesiastes 2. Turn over to Ecclesiastes 2. There’s there’s just so much to talk about from what he mentions to us.

Ecclesiastes 2. Uh, 17 and 18. Therefore I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me for all his vanity and grasping for the wind. Then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun because I must leave it to the man who will come after me. It’s does Solomon say, does he mean he hated life? Or does, here’s a good question, or does he mean he hated life? What’s the answer? It means he hated life. That’s what he said, right? But but what is it about life that he hated? It was so brief. It was brief, and what else does he say? It’s so it’s stressful. It’s stressful. Okay. Let’s take a vote. Life’s stressful?

Conclusion

Yes. Very stressful. Okay. And it causes us, right? It causes us to hate that. But again, it’s this perspective that we have that says, you know what? I can live it, I can get through it. I know what God wants. That’s what I’m going to do. That’s to me. Let’s go back to let’s go back to where we started. The vex of conformity is I can conform. Easy to conform. I can live like everybody else lives. But what’s what is going to happen to me if I live that way? I’m going to be troubled, I’m going to be distressed. I’m going to be troubled in spirit. I’m going to be all these things that Solomon says he was. Okay? And I’m going to end up, I don’t know exactly where Solomon ended up, but but if I’m not careful, and I and I go back, I revert back to that mindset that I had before I obeyed the gospel, my life’s not going to be what it ought to be.

Any comments? I know, and this thing has this thing has flowed exactly like I wanted. It’s just kind of gone piece after piece. But that’s what I wanted. Yeah. You mentioned earlier about you had a million dollars, go out and offer it to somebody on the street. What would they choose? Ask them. If they knew about God, what would they choose on a deathbed? You know, and it has to do with time. It has to do with what with what is most important to them at the time. And I can tell you, most on their deathbed would not choose more money. No. I think you’re right about that. 100%. So why talk about this? It’s just to remind us. It’s just to remind us and stir us up to remember that we are people who not only believe in God, we have trust in God.

We want to look at things that other people can’t see. We want to look at the things that are unseen, the things that are eternal, and just and just be reminded of that. But because we live in time and because we are sensual people, listen, the things that I can touch and see and smell and hear, all those kind of things appeal to me. And that’s part of life. Okay.

Who’s a blind and deaf girl? Helen Killer. I could think of Helen Killer for the life of me. Can you imagine? Can’t see, can’t hear? Take away two of those senses. Think about the difficulty she had. My only point to that is think about how valuable those are to us. How valuable they are. But but we really can’t live by those things. Those things are brief. Yeah, God’s given those things to us to enjoy, but but the perspective we have can’t be associated with all of those things. Because if that’s all we’re about, then we’re going to live exactly the way you want to live. Because that’s what we want. Okay? So our mindset absolutely has to change. And it has to change. I think somebody said we’ve got to think about it every day.

That’s exactly that’s exactly what has to happen. And I think that difficulty is seen in the fact that Paul talked about it. He’d send these letters to churches that he had already seen, people he knew, people he didn’t know. And he said, Listen, you got to stay strong, you gotta keep doing what you ought to do. You gotta keep having that mindset that says, I’m looking at things that are eternal, not things that are temporary. Okay. Anyone else? Yeah, Jim? I was thinking this is kind of an overarching thought that we started with conformity. And I’m thinking uh related word, transforming. Because conforming, you can do willfully, in other words, it’s not what I want, but I choose to do it because I’ve reasoned out that it’s the right thing to do.

And that’s good. Yeah. But when you’re transformed, you take what you didn’t want and make it what you want. It takes time. Oftentimes, you know, we talk about how we build habits. How do you build a habit? Do it over and over again, and it’ll become a habit. So as you are renewing your mind, and as you willfully are choosing to conform to God, you will in that process transform to be more likely. And that’s what he wants. That’s ultimately what we go through this this life. Because he wants transform to people. Not just conforming.

Good. Think about who we are. You know, we start wanting our own what we want. Then hopefully he changes us. We we obey the gospel, everything begins to change, and that transfer take transformation takes place in this life, but the ultimate transformation takes place in the next life when we’re completely like him. Yeah. Somebody else walk out.

The transformation, it’s a painful process. There’s another knowledge talk about going through the fire, burning off on. So even this war, this journey as opposed to other not easy because that transformation is to convene and shaping you into something else. That’s right. It’s hard. It’s hard.

In order to be transformed, we need to need to go ahead and uh grow in those Christian races. Just talk about 2 Peter chapter 1 and remember Peter’s last verse of 2 Peter 3 to grow in Christ and knowledge of the Lord being in Christ. That’s what we need to be transformed. Good. Isn’t there another word that we use for transform or conform to God? Is it in Psalms? It talks about the law of the Lord is perfect, converted. This whole we’re we’re talking about converted. Yeah, and even conformity, we can we can be conformed to his image. I mean there’s a lot of places that tell us about that. You just have it just context, right? It’s what what we what the object is and what it’s not.

Yeah, yes, ma’am. I was thinking about as we said.

And there was such a sense of some type of spirituality at that time, and today there’s so much apathy and so much acceptance of just everything. It seems like it it would become easier for us to conform to spirituality, but it’s still not, I guess, because of the draw of our carnal nature. You know, but I was just thinking as you were talking about that, it seems like at some point it would be easier for us to come back to the world. That’s a great point.

You talk about that point right there. That’s good stuff. That’s uh that’s well said. I like it. Yeah. I’ve just been thinking through this whole thing. We talked about being spiritual-minded or not, and then we talk about the need to be stirred up. I I think sort of a an overarching lesson of moral for us is we cannot rest on being spiritual and being spiritual-minded. It’s not something we just fold our arms and say, I got this. We do need to be stirred up, we do need to work at it. There are those things out there, our intellect, emotion, and will that you you you talked about, you know, that work for us but can also work against us. And it’s a struggle in the world we have, and especially these times.

And you know, the other thing is we talk about these times being difficult the last couple of years. All times have been tough. All times are going to be tough. And we’re always going to be tempted, and we’re going to have to work at being spiritual-minded. We just can’t rest on that. Well said, it it it doesn’t come easy. It doesn’t come easy. But you know, I think I’m the most spiritual when I’m in a place like this. You know, I I now value spiritual songs. You know, we sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Just think about what think about when you sing a spiritual song. You want to test your spirituality? What does that song do for you? Is that just are are you just singing words?

Is it all about how you sound, or are you thinking about what that song is saying? If you’re a spiritual person, that song is going to be meaningful to you. It’s going to stir you up. The listening, when you’re being fed the bread of life, if you’re spiritual, that’s going to be important to you. But if you sit there and you go, what? I don’t really want to be here. That that tells you something. That tells you something. When it’s time to take these emblems, if you’re going, let’s get through this. That tells you something. That’s why this, that’s why this evaluation process for each of us becomes so important. We just, as you say, Rafi, it’s an ongoing thing. It’s an ongoing thing. And we have to we have to keep reminding ourselves of the value of it.

It’s it’s really important. It it sustains us in this life. It gets us through this life because we have this perspective that’s different. Great, great comments. Anybody else? Yeah, sure you can.

My mind is like running around not to win the race, but I mean you want to phrase the race, so you have to go through all these basic fundamentals to get to that and and and finish the race. So that’s what we have to do. We have to study and and pray and stay on. Keep going about it. Keep going. Yes. When we we when we don’t have God, we we are exposed to to be in danger. And um for me, for uh for me when I was out of um the uh what is it? My English is that’s okay. Okay. When I was in the world, I tried. When I was in the world, I was always uh I wasn’t I was single and um I always was preparing me to go to dance every weekend.

So I would put in a new shoes, new everything for be in that place. When we was I was in that place, I started drinking with my friend. But the thing is, after I we would have fun, we would dance in men try to uh uh how do you say squeeze us? I was ending fighting. And then when I come home, I was empty. When I was there, I was uh happy, but when I came home it was empty, and I was always saying, God, where are you? I don’t even have any my my my heart just when I was in trouble. But when I came in God place, I said to him, please God take that sensation to go to dance because I was always, I don’t even care if it was two, three o’clock in the morning, I was getting there driving by myself, and um when g I tell God to do that for me, he took all the thing because I think I don’t want to play Christian, I want to be me for you, whatever.

And up to now, I give my life in 2004, and I’m still fighting for uh get to to his glory. Well, while together we stand the same. Hey, is that your story? That’s my story. Maybe not exactly the same way, but that’s all of our stories, right? It’s our life is empty without God. Very well said, thank you. Very empty, and we’ve got to once we fill it, we gotta keep it filled. We gotta keep it filled. Thank you. Yes, sir. Peer pressure starts uh even at a very early age as children. We submit to it, we have to learn not to submit. Very, very strong. Isn’t that what happened to Peter? Yeah, it sure is. We’re gonna talk about that tomorrow. Yes, sir. Peer pressure is conform.

People by nature conform.

What we need to do is choose what we want to conform to. Very much better conformist. That’s right. That’s right. All right, well, all I wanted to do was help us think, and maybe we accomplish that. Be be reminded of what of who we are and what we need to do. So we’re gonna come back in about an hour and a half, and we’re gonna talk about then the value of community. And the first question is, what do you think I mean by that? So be thinking about that, okay. All right. Any any other comments? Kim. I’ll just repeat what he said.

Uh I want to encourage you. This is obviously optional. Find somebody and go to lunch with them. Uh maybe discuss what we talked about and what we’re going to talk about this afternoon. Uh, but we will reassemble about one thirty. So plan on being back uh for the afternoon session. And if you’re watching us online, it’s time for your lunch. And you come back in, we’ll be live streaming at one thirty uh this afternoon, and you can watch that session. Thanks, everybody. We’ll see you at one thirty.