Occupation Of The Mind

Real life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints, and impact our culture. You've been creating the image of God and your value is infinite and Satan tries to convince you that you should be somebody else and the world will transform you with drugs and with a knife. Jesus transforms you with love and forgiveness and joy and peace and meaning and purpose, and it's available for anyone and everyone. You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to Jackhibbs.com slash podcast. Today, if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us, that's like saying amen or yes, then that rating will encourage others to listen. Now open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. Here is Jackhibbs. Three things that won't take long for us to knock off these three things right here right now, and that is this. So give God your will by an act of violence, and you heard me right. By an act of violence, he's what do you mean? Well, this is what I don't mean. I don't mean rocks and bombs and swords and chills and war. That's not what I'm talking about in this sense. I'm talking about our spiritual relationship that you and I who are real followers of Jesus understand that we are going to pursue Christ with all of our hearts because of his goodness for us. And this is what he says, do not be conformed to this world. The Bible tells us that in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 9, regarding conformity to this world, we've got countermeasures, church, and we want to accept this with a violence as it were of faith. See, what do you mean by that? Where we stand up today, don't stand up. I'm just making this up. We stand up today and we say, that's it. I will to pursue Christ. It's what I'm going to do. And this is one of those things. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verses 9 and 10. But as it is written, I has not seen, I'm talking about forever, eternity. I has not seen. Stop right there and ask yourself, what have you seen in your life, whatever you've seen in your life? It's nothing compared to what's coming. I'm talking about beautiful things. Nor ear heard. What's the most wonderful thing you've ever heard is nothing in this world. Nor have it entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him. Listen, church, do you love him? I mean, this is awesome. God has prepared things for us who love him. But here's the beautiful thing about this. We don't love him because he gives us stuff. We love him because of who he is. We wake up to the realization that we love him because he first loved us. Verse 10 says, but God. So this is amazing. We haven't seen, we haven't heard. It's not entered into our hearts regarding the things that God has prepared for those who love him. But look at the first 10. But God, we have an interruption. But God has revealed them to us, really, through His Spirit, for the Spirit that is the Holy Spirit searches all things. Ye the deep things of God. Church family, listen, as you and I grove the grace and knowledge of Jesus, I don't know how it's to tell you, but I'm pretty sure if you attend this church, you know it. How am I supposed to experience verse 9? As verse 10 says, I can. How does that happen? It happens like this. You find out what His will is and you allow your will to be assimilating His will. And you do this by doing this. You've heard of Facebook, haven't you? This is it. Right here. Face in the book. Facebook. More of this in your face gets into your hearts. And these God-given gifts of reality. God will give you, can I put it to you this way? He will flirt with you, glimpses, and words of heaven, words of eternity, words of forever. And they'll hit you in a moment. You'll have a thought and it's like, oh my gosh, or you'll see something and God will speak to you out of that site or out of that moment. But there's an amazing thing. And I love when that scripture says, ye the deep things of God, it means that God has the ability to illuminate or to do with things surgically. We're talking about presenting ourselves in a sense that it would be violent to the body, meaning my body wants to take it easy. My body wants to do what it wants to do. But because I'm a new creation in Jesus, my new life says, hey, body, this is what we're going to go do. And our body becomes the tool by which we present ourselves, the living sacrifice. Does that make sense? You guys awake? Or did I kill you? Jesus put it this way. It's quite remarkable. You know it very well. Matthew chapter 7, verse 13, Jesus says, enter by the narrow gate. This is violent. The flesh says, I don't want to enter in by no narrow gate. I don't want to enter in any way. I want to enter in. Jesus says, enter in by the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction. That's hell. And there are many who go in by it. You know, the vast majority of people, according to Jesus, are heading toward a crisis eternity. Why? Because they took their will and they yielded over to other gods and other pursuits. And they presented themselves and living sacrifice to all kinds of pleasures and short lived opportunities that have nothing to do with eternal life. And he goes on. He says, there are many who go in by it. Verse 14, because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life. And there are a few who find it. You know what that is? That's the description of a disciple. Lord, we would say, don't let me wander. Lord, look close into my life. Test me. Show me. Speak to me. And he'll lead you. And he'll guide you. And then this is fun. The word here where it says, do not be conformed to this world. The word do not mean stop it. You want a fancy definition? That's all there is. Stop it. It sounds like we talk to our kids. Stop that. God is saying, stop yielding yourself to this world. It's not going to go well. Stop it. And that word conformed. The word conformed. Look at its meaning. Press into. It's a very uncomfortable site that you'll see in your mind with this definition. Press into to be placed into something that does not fit nor is it designed to fit. The world wants to take you in your life. Now watch two things. Number one, if you're not a Christian, the spiritual dark world is constantly trying to pressure and put you into a mold that represents this world. And you will bear the image of this world. You will. We all have. And by God's grace, many of us have gotten out of that. God broke the mold. No pun intended. And he brought us into a new life. The believer, listen, the believer, you and I are constantly ministered to you by the Holy Spirit, warning us to stay clear of the conformity of the world. And one of the great, great movements in our modern age has you have been you and I waken up to the reality that fear is a great power to conform, to have people conform. Fear, manipulation, name calling. And any way that causes you to pull away and to sequester yourself, Satan loves it. And God says, stop it. Stop letting that happen. Because God has so much better for you. But that word to be pressed into, I don't know what comes to your mind, but if you ever try to take like five pounds of meat and stuff it into a two pound bag, you see the picture? It's like some people, how do they get into those clothes? I don't know how that happened. It should be studied. There should be research done on this. How did you do that? There's some things that just ought not to happen. But notice that the world is constantly, if you're not a Christian, see here's a deal, if you're a Christian, you're full. And so the world tries to conform you. We've got a great, great defense because we don't recognize it or remember it from the past. And there's no more room for it. And we push it out. That's awesome. But the world, listen, if you're not a believer, you're wide open. And the world is constantly trying to shove its agenda down your life. More drugs, more drink, sleep with this person, sleep with that one, sleep with them all and do some drugs on top of it. Dull yourself to all of this while the world puts its mold upon you. Are you hearing me? This is the world we live in. And if you live for that, you're going to be a slave and it's going to be miserable and it ends miserably. And if you yield your life to him as a living sacrifice, there's absolute freedom. Because number one, you're not being pulled by anything of this world. It doesn't mean we're not tempted. We talked about that on Wednesday in the book of Hebrews. We are tempted, but it's not a sin to be tempted. It's a sin to get into the temptation. Always remember that. The Bible says in 1 John, chapter 2, verse 15, do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life that those three things are key to all sin is not of the father but is of the world. And then James, if you guys can handle this, I'm going to read James for James. He's a tough nut. James, you're going to see James in heaven. I'm going to kind of be, I'm going to kind of stay away from James. He scares me. James is the guy when you read his epistle. James is the one that you can render this overview of the epistle to the book of James. James is saying this. You say that you have faith? Great. I'm moving into your house and I'm going to live with you for four weeks. I won't say a word. I'll just listen and watch everything that you do. And then at the end of four weeks, I will tell you if you are a Christian or not. That's the book of James. That's why it's one of the least red books in the New Testament. He says, where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? Now, he's very blunt. I would have said that war in your body. He didn't say your body. He said body parts. When your body part says, hey, this is what I want to do. James says, isn't there were wars originate from? Wars in your family, wars in relationships, wars among nations. Think of that. You lust and you do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and you war yet. You do not have because you do not ask. That's an interesting statement. He's actually saying God knows what you need. You should ask him. James is warning us of the personality that we can have that says, I don't want what I need. I want what I want. There's a big difference. Are you hearing me? Big difference. Verse 3, you ask and you do not receive because you ask him this. That's another funny one. Oh, God, please help me win the power ball this week. You've never prayed to him before, but all of a sudden, God is getting bombarded when there's $400 million to win. Everybody's praying. James says, you're asking God to do something for you that he doesn't want you to have. Have you ever done that? We've all done that. I mean, not power ball. I don't know. I don't know. But something, oh, God, if you want me to do this or that, cause the sun to rise. And it doesn't happen because we're not asking rightly. Then you may spend it on your own pleasures, adulterers and adulteresses. By the way, he means that spiritually, not that they're out doing stuff. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. And so we want to stop being conformed to the image of this world. And then quickly this, absolutes. Verse 2 teaches us about absolutes. But be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That's an absolute. Give God your will with an act or by an act of absolutes. The Bible here tells us that we can be transformed. I'm going to step on some tolls. I don't mean this to hurt you. I mean this to set you free if you only know. God says, I want to transform you. Every believer God is saying, the sanctifying work in your life, I do. God says by the Holy Spirit and it's a transformation of your life. The word transformed or transformation to be transformed, to be transfigured, to go through a transformation, becoming more and more like the original pattern or blueprint. Stop right there. This is the Greek definition. Metamorpho. You know the word Metamorphos. We live in a world right now where Satan has pulpits everywhere. And what is his message? You can change who you are. Satan has hated the fact that you and I have been creating the image of God since the Garden of Eden. He is jealous. He is angry and he can't stand you. And now all around the world we humans are being attacked by a satanic agenda to disfigure, to destroy and to confuse the human. God's prime creation because you've been creating the image of God and your value is infinite and Satan tries to convince you that you should be somebody else. And the world will transform you with drugs and with a knife. Jesus transforms you with love and forgiveness and joy and peace and meaning and purpose and it's available for anyone and everyone. Church, this is a critical hour. Satan is lying wholesale and our children and our friends are in the crosshairs of the enemy. You want to be transitioned? Give your life to Christ. Oh, he'll transition you all right. He'll make your life so absolutely dynamic and filled with meaning because he loves you. These are absolutes. Absolutes exist. I know it's contrary to our college campuses today. I love this. It's so it's so crazy. We need to get back to the good old days of what is known as critical thinking. When a professor says in a classroom, we do not believe in absolutes in this class. Excuse me sir. Isn't that an absolute statement? Oh, you can't dare say that because you'll embarrass them because they have nowhere to go with that one. Think about it. No, there's absolutes all right. God is an absolute for one thing. Maybe for the only thing he is the one that matters. Transfigurator, you don't God wants to do in our lives. Listen, he gave us an example in Matthew chapter 17, verse two. I love this. Matthew chapter 17, verse two, a little bit of background. Jesus took Peter, James, and John up to the top of what I believe is Mount Hermone. It says in the Bible that Jesus took them to exceedingly great and high mountain. There's only one. Mount Hermone, 9,000 feet. He takes them up there. The Bible says Jesus is praying. Peter, James, and John are some distance away. Jesus is praying. The Bible says that a cloud of glory came down upon him and he was illuminated. He was white, brilliant like the sun, and Moses and Elijah appeared and spoke to him about his coming death. He was brilliant. And if you think about that, that's not abnormal for Jesus. That's the world he lived in. He came here for 33 into quarter years. He was inside a human body. Think of that. I always wonder in my cartoon mind, if Jesus was stretching up minus tip of his toes to reach an avocado or an orange to pull down, and he stretched his skin too far. It did like shoot out. I'm kidding. Be happy you're not me. Inside, he's got his light. Of course, he was all human yet without sin, but he was transfigured. There's a day coming when the one who transforms will transform you and I. The Bible says in a moment and in a twinkly of an eye, but church, we want to make sure that our will is something that we make a firm and absolute decision upon because Proverbs 23 verse 7 says, for as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. You will become like that which you think about the most. Only you know the answer to this. What is it that occupies your mind? That's who you are and that's what you will become. And so God's desires for all of us to present ourselves to Him and say, Lord, here I am. I'm all yours. I give you my body. I give you my mind. I give you my very spirit. My born again, the new me. And until I see you face to face, God, I pray that you assemble me to live for you in harmony. That the body would have its right place. It is now the subject by which I execute the will of God in my life. God says this in the Bible. I make a determination based upon my will. I will obey God. 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