Being transformed - not conformed to this world
Vern Peterman · Mar 27, 2011
What God Is Doing in Believers, No. 13
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926229443185

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We're at the last part of this being transformed, not conformed to this world. This is the last part here in March. We're going to be doing another theme shift starting next week for the month of April. So that will be about spiritual growth and how does that fit into being conformed and being transformed. What does that mean?

And what's interesting, we brought up the point that there are only two passages that speak of the believer being transformed, and so we quote these again here. This time with some particular parts bolded and italicized is Romans 12, 1 and 2. Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. 2 Corinthians 3, 17 and 18 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord the Spirit.

Now, we've been looking here about what it means to be transformed from primarily 2 Corinthians 3.18, but we're going to now take a look at the meaning of Romans 12.2. We looked at that before, if you might recall, when we were looking at this conformity issue. But there are a few points we want to make, and some of this is review, but I think it's important to just kind of freshen our minds.

The first bullet there in the middle of page 1, Transformed in 2 Corinthians 3.18 is the same process as in Romans 12.2. They are both referring to the same process using the exact same Greek word and English words even though the words surrounding them differ. We will see shortly why and in what ways the surrounding words differ. So that's part one.

Next bullet there, the transforming process in 2 Corinthians 3.18 and Romans 12.2 refer to the right spiritual alternate to being conformed to this world. Our focus ought not to simply be a refusal to be conformed to this world. Suppose you just said, you know, I'm not going to be conformed to this world. Why is that not adequate?

What's that? You couldn't go to the grocery store. Yeah, especially the checkout line. The magazines there are just really something. Yeah. Wasn't that what they tried to do back in the 60s? What's that? They removed themselves from the world and put themselves in the little Volkswagen busses and found out it was impossible. You know, I I was living two miles off a dirt road, you know, way back, and we were the farm, but we were the end of civilization because we had running water, a bathtub, and, you know, electricity and a telephone. Two miles past us, farther back, with none of those amenities, was a hippie commune. But they would always come to us when they had an emergency of some kind.

I remember one time coming to the back door, knocking on the door, This gal's looking at me and, you know, she is great with child. She says, can I come and have a bath at your place before I have a baby? I said, sure. So she had a bath at our place and, you know, I said, here's the towels and, you know, have a good time. And then she went to the cabin up on the hill and had a baby with everybody sitting around looking. Anyway, yeah, you're right. OK. In keeping with the, oh, excuse me. Okay, third bullet.

In keeping with the spiritual anatomy that we explored in this elective in January of this year, there are two points we would be well to bring forward to the present discussion. Point one, the part of the believer that is to be transformed is this continuity of person or continuing person. And if you look at the backside, we've got the diagram from what we showed there before.

That is, when a person is in Adam, and a person is in Christ, there is a change of old man to new man. And then the old man has a sin, or old nature. Sometimes people put that together as old sinful nature. And when they're in Christ, being a new man, they have a new nature. None of those change.

That is, the new man doesn't change over time, the new man's new nature doesn't change over time, but that continuing person or continuity of person is what does continue from the unbeliever to the believer, and that is the part of the person that changes over time. Okay, the next one, this is the very bottom part of page one.

Item 2, as Romans 12.2 makes clear, being transformed involves the renewing of the mind, which in this case is referring to the spiritual mind that is not just the gray matter, the physical part of the mind that is centered in the human brain, which is an aspect of the soul of the believer, that is, it is the spiritual part of the mind, not the physical part, that is the focus here That is what is referred to as the renewing of the mind.

So now we have the second diagram, bottom half of page two. And this is a diagram we've shown several times. We have the physical realm and the spiritual realm. And so you'll see on the spiritual realm side, there's the mind, emotions, and will aspect of the soul. And we'll see why that distinction is important here in a little bit.

Are we okay so far? Yes, it's okay. All right. I want to make sure nobody's baffled. At least not irretrievably. Are you saying there's no spiritual mind? It's a spiritual soul? No, I am saying there's a spiritual mind. You have brain on one side and you have soul on the other side.

That's correct. In other words, in our human physical side, we have a brain and there is a mind, emotions, and will aspect of simply this gray matter. It's like, you know, you go into that room that some people call the coffee room, other people call it the sugar room, and you do things that are substantially physical side things. And you get a cup of coffee and all that, and a lot of that is really physical side activity. But in this case, what we're talking about is the spiritual side, and the soul consists of the spiritual side of mind, emotions, and will. All right, we good so far? Okay, all right. By the way, is this stuff that we've been studying, would you say that it's fairly unique? That you don't tend to hear that a lot? I mean, the things we're studying, my impression is that a lot of Christians never hear this. A lot of churches never hear this.

And one more thing, that while we have had a really good elective here in years past on trials and suffering, What this does is put it in context. What's God doing? Let's ask another question. What is the tendency if we don't understand these things and something negative happens in our lives? What is our tendency as human beings? God's forgotten us. God doesn't care. God's forgotten me.

To curse it? Any other ideas or input? Pardon? I'm being punished. Yeah, that's another one. God's punishing me. Any others? I did it. Something I did. Pardon? Something I did. Yeah, it goes along with the punishment. It must be something I did that brought this thing along in my life. The blame game. Yeah, the blame game. Another one that I've seen closely related to what Cripe said here, and that's mad at God. Mad at God.

And so what happens is we have all these different ranges of fairly negative reactions to these things that happen in our life because we don't understand what God's doing. So that's why it's, I'm amazed that the church is not in general taught these things. What a loss, because having this understanding makes a great difference. When we go through a tough time of whatever sort, what a wonderful thing to know God's got a reason for this, and He knows what He's doing. And to have confidence that He has revealed, at least in a general way, why I'm going through what I'm going through. We need what's happening to us.

Yes. Along with that, I think you have a tendency to stop the race. In other words, you're saying, you know, I just can't live up to this. Yes, yes. And that's the scheme of Satan. I mean, is that not the point that he's trying to accomplish is to get you to fall away. And I think that's, you know, we've brought up several very good points in terms of what people's reactions are when they come along difficult things but don't understand. And that you brought up one more, and that is disappointment. and ultimate discouragement.

I'm done with this God stuff. I don't know what God's doing, but I'm just ticked. And instead to have the understanding and insight, yes, this is exactly what He's doing. As we kind of illustrated previously, it's the tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, you know. God is in the process of conforming us with the things that happen. And, you know, going and looking at the Bible isn't because you've got to do your obligatory 15 minutes. But God has a transforming process in mind, and it happens through God's Word and no other way.

Right? So this is wonderful stuff to understand. Instead of going through life and saying, boy, what was that about? We know exactly what it's about. This is a tremendously freeing and insightful thing. We see God as faithful instead of deeply disappointing. Yeah, I think it keeps people from thinking of God as being capricious and unstable.

Yeah, you think, what is God doing? Well, guess what? We know exactly what he's doing. Isn't that great? What a tremendous insight for us to have. Instead of just being exasperated I have no idea what God's doing. How on earth is He trying to make good of this? This is tremendous insight for us to have. And it's very real world and practical. Very real world and practical. Okay, let's take a look at the top of page 3.

So what is the renewing of the mind and how does that connect with 2 Corinthians 3.18? We're going to start by defining the terms renewing and mind. And we'll do that together. Here's renewing of your mind. In order to understand renewing of your mind, we have to start with what the New Testament says of the mind of the unbeliever. In other words, all of us at one point in time were unbelievers, right? And there is a mind that goes along with being an unbeliever.

And here's Romans 1.28. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind. Second, excuse me, Ephesians 2, 1 through 3.

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins. By the way, that's an identification truth for the unbeliever. In which, identification truth, you formally walked according to the course of this world. The you are dead in your trespasses and sins, that's position. In which you formerly walked, that's condition. And for the unbeliever, what condition options do they have? None. They don't have any other choice or option.

In which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. Ephesians 4, 17 and 18 continues on, So this I say and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer, just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind. So you see depraved mind, you see an indulging of the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and you see in the futility of their mind. How many of those sound real good?

Not so much, right? So, for the unbeliever, the character of the mind is consistent with the unbeliever's position in Adam. The unbeliever has no position-condition issue. Right? For them, that's not an issue. Yes? So, could I correctly say that the identification with the world is confirmation and the identification with the spiritual aspect is transformation? So if you're identifying, if you're being conformed to the world, you're being identified in the world, right? And with the world. Okay, yes. Okay, so when you become a Christian, you become identified with Christ, so that's transformation.

Is that fair to say then? Not quite, because the being in Christ is an absolute and positional statement. Whereas the being conformed and being transformed, those are processes that take place along the way. So that's not a positional statement. Being in Christ, you're in that position. But once having been made to be in Christ, There is this continuing person that is being conformed and transformed.

Those two processes in parallel. So that's one thing we talk about. Here's our position and that doesn't change. Are you going to stop being in Christ at noon today? No. And it's not like there's some timer that goes off and sorry, you're just no longer in Christ. Couldn't help it, right? That continues. You are forever in Christ. Whereas being transformed and being conformed is something that takes place once you become a believer, but while you're still on earth.

So in the paragraph that starts in the middle of page three, it says, in the unbeliever, the character of the mind is consistent with the unbeliever's position in Adam having only the old self, the old man, and the old nature as one who is lacking in spiritual senses.

That is, the unbeliever does not have his spiritual senses turned on. They are turned off or greatly dulled so that they simply can't see. So here's the believer looking and seeing spiritual things, and the unbeliever says, I don't see anything. He simply cannot see into the spiritual realm. He cannot hear in the spiritual realm. He's lacking in spiritual senses, understanding, insight, and discernment.

Once a person comes to believe, however, there is in Christ a new position, new man, new nature, and new spiritual history. The spiritual senses have come alive and there is the opportunity to truly renew the spiritual aspect of the mind. and that part of the believer that is in the soul but connected to and integrated with all the other parts both physically and spiritually. One of the things that's important for us to recognize is when we talk about things like the believer's mind or the believer's emotions or the believer's will in the spiritual realm, These are not isolated, disconnected things. They're connected with everything else.

So if I have a renewing of the mind, that happens in connection with my emotions, in connection with my will, and not as an isolated thing. You can't come to Holly Hills and go into the coffee room and pick up off the shelf a nice slab of spiritual mind. It's not an isolated entity. So when we say, when we talk about renewing of the mind, it's not, here's this mind all isolated. It's connected to everything else. But the focus, the central focus is upon the spiritual aspect of the mind. Mark? Yes. I'm almost afraid to ask this, but I'm going to ask it anyway. Oh, good. What a fine preface.

You said that The unbeliever does not have spiritual senses and cannot see into the spiritual world, but there are people who are seers, and there are people who are in witchcraft, and they definitely can see into some aspect of the spiritual world, maybe not on a continuous process. And let's take a look at that. Someone who is into, let's say, Satanism, someone who is into witchcraft and things of that sort, what kind of senses do they have?

Well, not supernatural. Well, it may be supernatural in a sense, but I think you're on to something, and that is, what are they missing? They seem to be instantaneous or momentarily for the purpose of accomplishing some point in time message, not necessarily a process, so to speak, or a growth process or a maturation process.

Now, what if I were to have some special glasses, and I've actually seen these, that takes things and filters out everything but the red spectrum, the red part of the spectrum. So I'm walking around, I'm looking, all I'm seeing is red. So a part of what is happening is instead of seeing things truthfully and clearly, they're seeing a selective or distorted image of what's taking place spiritually. The Satanists believe in God, however their perception of who God is, they see God as junior to Satan. So when we say that they don't see, for some it's an absolute blindness, for others it is a distorted or selective appearance. that allows them perhaps to see, but to fail to see the truth. To fail to see things as they truly are. So that would be your false religions like Mormonism, the cultic religions, and Jehovah Witnesses and all the rest of them that see an aspect of spirituality, but it's not the truth. It is not the truth. Let me give you another illustration.

My dad years ago had a friend This is back in the Silicon Valley, California. He had a friend who had invented some glasses that you put on that turned everything reversed. It was all, you know, the up was up and down was down, but left was right. And so, this friend of my dad's had my dad sit in the passenger side on the front of the car. And he had him put these glasses on and my dad said, whoa, you know, you turn your head like this and everything's going the wrong direction. And then he said, let's go for a drive. And so this this guy pulled up to a stop sign, which is, by the way, on the wrong side of the road. And he pulled up to a stop sign. And then the guy asked my dad, do you want to go left or right?

And then here's here's what's wrong is you start turning right, at least in your perception. But what is your body sensing? The other way. So what you instantly do is fall over in the seat. Because your body and your eyes are not in sync at all. And so what you have is a wrong perception of reality. For those who actually do have some spiritual senses, but it's not guided by the Holy Spirit and by God's Word, their perception is selective, distorted, or limited in some way.

I think what they found too on cats or something using that, is that eventually you get used to it. Yes. The mind will adjust to it. Years ago Moody Institute of Science had a similar kind of thing where they gave a fellow glasses because our mind actually turns the image upside down you know, so that it's right side up to us. But what will happen is if you have that for a period of time, your mind will turn it the other way. And then as you take the glasses off, your mind will see things wrongly and then turn it after a while the other way. You kind of do that reading backwards and upside down too.

Uh-huh. Yeah. Your brain just goes a little slower and says, OK. Your brain works through it and makes whatever you become accustomed to correct. And that's what the world is doing, is to the extent that they have any perception at all, it's messed up. It is a wrong perception. They've adjusted to the upside-down world, right? OK. Let's continue on here with page 3.

So the spiritual, I'm looking at the middle of this paragraph that starts with in the unbeliever. The spiritual senses have come alive and there is the opportunity to truly renew the spiritual aspect of the mind. The part of the unbeliever that is in the soul but connected to and integrated with all the other parts both physically and spiritually. And it is critical to realize that the root of the Greek word translated as renewed means new in kind. We don't have a renewal that's just sort of refurbishing us.

The renewal is a new and kind renewal, and I think that's a part we have to look at. It is this process that takes our mind, our perceptions, our thinking of things, from the unbelievers' limited, distorted, corrupted view of things, selective, untrue perceptions, into increasingly understanding things as they truly are.

You see that? Yeah, Carol? I think that means that it's nude instead of renewed. What's that? It's nude instead of renewed. It is made new. Is that what you're saying? Yeah, it is nude. It's a nude kind of nude. It's nude every day. It's not renewed. And actually, yeah, it may be that renewed is a Maybe not the optimum word. You could be on to something there. Made new in kind. Made new in kind. Made to be something it never was before. Yes. Here's the thing.

Our spiritual perception, which is made increasingly to be true and new is what changes our thinking about things, our perspective on things. Before, if something bad happened, I would just get anxious and curse God. But now that I'm a believer, I look at it and say, oh, now I know what God's doing. This difficulty that I'm going through isn't just something disappointed with God. I don't have anything to do with that Christianity stuff. Instead, I now look at it and say, now I know what God's doing. Alan, did I see a hand up?

Isn't that why it says the word created for new self, because God creates from not of this world, whereas when we create something, it's of this world, but when God creates, it's not of this world. It's a totally new creation, right? So the new self, the word created is used. It's God's new creation. That's what you're saying, a new kind, right?

Here's the interesting thing. This present world that we're standing in and seeing and hearing in, is this going to last forever? Absolutely not. So what's going to happen to this world? It's going to be changed. It's going to be destroyed. Yeah, God's going to get rid of this one and have an entirely new one.

The part of this world that is already of the new creation starts with Christ and then with us. As believers, you have already begun to be a part of the new creation. You see that? We've already begun here, now, to be a part of the new creation. Because Christ was the first of the new creation. And by the way, where are you? You are in Christ. Therefore, you, as you are in Christ, are part of the world that is yet to come. Right now. Right now. And that's one reason why the perception In a sense, we don't belong here. We're not of this stuff. As we are in Christ, who is the first of the new creation, the firstborn of the new creation, and since we are in Him, spiritually speaking, we're already begun, right now, to be a part of that new creation.

And so am I the only one that sees it this way? But it creates conflict because I see that my plan is not his plan. So the more you get into the spiritual aspect of life and you see his plan, it's not necessarily, well, it's not going to be the same as what you thought your plan was for your life. And so it creates this conflict initially. This world has got a list of things. They look at it and they say, well, this is bad. This is a bad event.

And we look at it and we say, God's just getting ready. This is a getting ready place. That's what it's for. It's a getting ready kind of place and it's getting us ready for where we belong. It's getting us ready because being in Christ, Christ who is the firstborn of the new creation, it's getting us ready for an entirely different kind of realm. And part of what we're looking at in here is the process has already begun. to change us made new. I think Carol your point is well taken. We're being made new for a creation that has never existed before. And we're in transition for that new creation. And growing and being changed and being transformed and being conformed for that new creation. Because we've been made to be in Christ.

So for somebody else, they look at it, and they say, boy, I'm ticked at God. What's God doing? I hate God. Right? And we're saying, well, God's just getting me ready. He's got a process in place, and He's getting me ready. This isn't going to last. But that place He's getting me ready for, that's going to last forever. Wow, I mean, that's radical different. The more mourning or sorrow or crying or pain, that's the place He's getting me ready for.

And the spiritual aspect of me being in Christ is already of that new creation. Because Christ is the firstborn of the new creation and we have been made to be in Him. It is critical to realize that the root of the Greek word translated as renewed means new and kind, Carol's point here, made new. Being the new creature in Christ, the spiritual mind of the believer can truly be renewed constantly and progressively, as we see in our second lesson in this elective.

And here's how Wiest expresses Ephesians 4.22. That you have put off once for all, with reference to your former manner of life, the old man, which is being corrupted according to the passionate desires of deceit. Moreover, that you are being constantly renewed, or made new, I think is Carol's point, with reference to the spirit of your mind, that is the spiritual aspect of the mind. That you have put on once for all the new man, which after God was created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

Because of your position in Christ, having the new man and the new nature, therefore the part of us that does change, this continuing person, is constantly being made new. Made new in what way? Made new not like the world, not like the unbeliever, but made new in the direction of How are we doing so far?

Blown any circuits? Anybody need that fuse changed? Let's take a look at page 4. In the context of who you are and now are in Christ, your mind has some catching up to do. Why are we meeting here? We've got some catching up to do. I mean, how many people, they just get through, you know, okay, I believe in Christ, I believe Christ died for my sins and was buried and rose again. How many people just know all this stuff automatically? They don't, right?

We're born with spiritual amnesia. And so what we're doing here is we're catching up to what God has already put into place. And we're getting our perspective change to the point where we understand what God's doing. I mean, how many unbelievers go around with the idea that, you know, I'm a new creation being and I'm actually not made for this world, I'm actually made for another one.

No. They aren't. They don't. They're right at home in every way. Yeah. They're fitted for here, and everything about that works for here. And they're trying to make everything fit for here. And God says, no. He says, really, I'm interested in just taking you out of here because this isn't going to last. And I'm going to start by spiritually placing you in Christ so that being in Christ, who is the first of the new creation, that you then are made to be a new creature. You are made of stuff, spiritually, that is suited for a creation that has not yet been fully formed. He says, God's saying, I've already done it inside, but there's a part of you that has got to catch up with what I've already accomplished.

And that's the process that we're going through. See? That's the process. Yeah. Creation that we are fit for, increasingly. Yeah. is really all formed. God's got it all done, except the physical occurrence. So what's God doing? He's getting us ready for something, and at some future point in time, as we clock things here on this planet, this whole world will wind up and be done. As Revelation puts it, it goes fleeing away. It's almost like some movie special effect. This whole world will just go fleeing away, just out of sight.

And in the new creation, where there is no more mourning or crying or pain, the new creation, where the glory of God is what lights up the place. In this creation, God made it and said, let there be light. In the new creation, He won't have to do that.

Why? Because He is light. There won't be any more sun. Will that be sad? Because the sun was a created thing to make light in this world, but he's getting us ready for a new creation in which he himself, the radiant essence of who God is, will light up everything. Yes? I know this is really, really elementary.

But how do you keep from being so heavenly minded you're no earthly good? I'll put it this way, and hold on to your thought, would you? In order to be any earthly good, we must be heavenly minded. People will say, heavenly minded is of no earthly good. In order to be of any earthly good at all, we must be heavenly minded.

And I think the connection is this, that by God's doing, By God's accomplishment, He intends that His life do the living here. That's why I'll say, we're done here. He wants us to live with Him, there seated in the heavenlies, while He does the living here. So you're through, you're fired. It's not our job. It's not our job. And when we talk about, you know, so heavenly minded, you're of no earthly good, that's missing one item.

It can be true that people are actually that way. It's missing one item, and that is, how does God intend life here to be lived out? Christ does it. I have been crucified with Christ. For what reason? It is no longer I that do the living. But Christ does the living in me. So it's His job to do the living here. We don't have to worry about things here. It's not our place. We're with Him. We are seated with the One in whom we are. We are seated with the One who is the firstborn of the new creation, and we're in Him.

As far as the earthly good, it's up to Him to do the earthly good. And there is a place for doing earthly good. For the sake of time, I'm going to move down to Ephesians 4. This is on the top of page 4. Ephesians 4 passage. in verse 23, and that you be new in kind renewed, or made new, I think as Carol pointed out, it's really good, in the spiritual aspect of your mind. In the mind, but on the spiritual side, that is an aspect of the soul. Then in Titus 3, 37.

Okay, verse 24, you skipped that. Yes, I did. And having put on a new self, okay, this sounds like it's past tense, having put on. Yes. So I presume that this is not a reckoning process like we had talked about earlier in another aspect. But this is something that you have been given by God and it would be similar to like gifts of the Holy Spirit, right? In other words, this new self is something that you've already got and it's been given to you. And since it's in Ephesians, I assume that it's totally there and all there and it's just a matter of appropriating it. As you grow and become more mature?

Yeah, it's recognizing what God has already done instead of trying to achieve it. But it's like blessings and visions. We've received all those blessings. We're just working them out. I'm not trying to get saved, right? That's already accomplished. God already did it. All I did was believe. This is the same thing. We have already the new self. Remember that diagram? Here's the new man. That's already there. Why? Because you're already in Christ. In totality, right? Yeah, completely. We don't go, boy, you know, today I feel like I'm about 43% in Christ. No, that's not the way it works, is it? I forgot your question, Marla.

If you look at it, will there be a new, and I'll use the word physical, universe? Yes, there will be. A new heavens, a new earth. In other words, God's not saying, well I'm just going to be done with this present creation and then there's nothing physical. Yes, there is something physical, but it is having a new character, a new kind that he is going to make. We could use the word universe, we could use the word world. We don't mean that it's anything identical. to the present universe or world.

It is a new creation. Everything. New heavens and new earth is the way the book of Revelation puts it. Another question somebody had here? Yes. I guess then is that identifying with Christ in the resurrection? Yes. Yep, the resurrection life is of an astounding, unparalleled magnitude.

And so when he died, did he die in this world? He died in this world, right? I mean, you could have been there and put your hand on the cross and gotten a sliver and seen the blood drop. This world. But when he resurrected, and something we'll see here in a few weeks. Remember what he said to Mary Magdalene? Don't cling to me. I'm being made into this new creation. And I'm not of this world. As a matter of fact, if you try to hold on to me here, you're not going to keep me here. I'm not of this kind. I'm not of this kind anymore. This Titus 3, 3-7, as a matter of fact it says 3-37, should be 3-3-7.

For we also, once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior. so that being justified by His grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The key and focal part for our purposes is that renewing by the Holy Spirit. How are we renewed? How does that happen? Does that happen because we've really put a lot of effort into it? No, it's done for us. We really get out our own kind of personal detailing crew. The renewal is done to us. And it's not a renewal like, oh, I'm going through this big machine.

But it's a renewal by a person. The Holy Spirit. Made new by the Holy Spirit. That's the part of you that is changing. This continuing person is being made new as a personal work. When I say a process, don't think machine. Personal work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is crafting you, is one way to look at it. The Holy Spirit is personally crafting you, making you new, as a personal work, not you're a part of some machine that God's just cranking.

See that? And the only way that makes sense is because God cares about you personally. and he relates to you personally. God doesn't have just some big machine cranking out with all the wheels and cogs turning. Let's read the last paragraph here. So Ephesians 4, 20-24 and Titus 3, 3-7 are about learning the truth not by mere intellectual ingestion. We're not just taking it in.

See, my hard drive has a lot of scripture in it. It's got passages and messages like crazy. But what spiritually does that do for the hard drive? Nothing. Nothing. It doesn't do anything. So it's not just mechanical or electronic content. It's not just data here. learning the truth, not by mere intellectual ingestion, but by actively and personally learning the truth from Christ himself, who is the truth, as his personal disciple.

The renewing of the mind of the believer, which is centered in the truth, is personal to Christ himself, is a result of the ministries of the Holy Spirit. The spiritual renewal of the mind is the outcome that we are transformed. This is what it means to behold the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ through his written word so as to be increasingly transformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Both the renewing and the transforming are the result of the ministries of the Holy Spirit and center our focus upon the person of Christ through the written word of God.

The process that God is taking you through is a personally crafted process by the Holy Spirit that centers you and focuses you and directs your attention to the person of Jesus Christ. So do take it personally. Take it personally. Please do. That's exactly what God intended. Take it personally. It's very important. God's not got you in some machine process. You're not being cranked through all the machine. This is something the Holy Spirit is hand crafting you personally into the person of Christ. He's doing it by conforming and transforming. Fitted to the position that you already have. And we're out of time. I'm beginning to see some noses show up on the back windows. So we're going to pray. Okay? Alright.

Lord, we thank you for these wonderful, tremendous insights. It gives significance to each moment and each day, and it gives significance and meaning and makes sense of our entire lifetimes. And how wonderful to know that even though we may not enjoy every single thing that takes place, we can enjoy the fact that it all happens because you love us and care for us. And what a wonderful perspective to realize that this is a getting ready kind of place. This isn't how it all ends up. This isn't all meaning and significance in a lifetime here on planet earth. Thank you, Lord, for the processes, plural, that you're carrying us through because you love us. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.