0:00 As for what I had to share, I wanted to start with a I don't know if it's a trivia question or it's it's just a little bit of a question that got me to think, which is Why do we have to sleep? Have you ever thought about that? And 0:14 children, I would ask you this question. Why do we have to go to bed at night? Everything that is, God made it that way. And we can say, well, we have to sleep because it's night time, but why did God make day and night? 0:29 Did he make day and night so that we you know, for what purpose? Jesus says that man wasn't created for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath is created for man. That was in Mark chapter two. So, we know that the most, you know, the the one of 0:42 the crowning moments of the seven days of creation was the Sabbath, but Jesus said Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. How much more so another day where God separated day and night? Why why is there night? So, it 0:57 was made for man. If the Sabbath was made for man, we can say the night was made for man. So, we don't sleep because it's night, and in a sense, it's night so that we can sleep. Which brings me back to my question, why do we sleep? 1:12 Why did God make it that way? He could have given us bodies that don't need sleep, for example. Have you thought about that, children? What would be like if you never had to go to bed? I know my children would like would wish that the 1:23 Lord had made us bodies where we never had to go to bed, right? I'm sure most people would. So, why did God do it? I think a hint, I don't know if it's the answer to the question, but a hint is given in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 1:37 And I want to look at this verse. If you look at 2 Corinthians chapter 4 with me in verse 16, it says here, "Therefore, we do not lose heart, though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed." How often? 1:55 Day by day. And what I see here, there's one reason that God has given us day and night and time to sleep is because every day is an opportunity for renewal. Spiritual renewal, inward renewal. And it's every or to say it differently, 2:12 every single day is an opportunity to have a fresh start with God. And we're familiar with that when we think about we've had a bad day. When we have a bad day, when we've failed, when we've sinned, when we when it's just 2:26 been a difficult day, we can think, oh, what a great um hope that tomorrow can be a fresh start. So, when when it's really good news. The good news that we can have a fresh start with God every day is really good news when we've had a bad day. But 2:41 I've learned um as I've been a Christian that it's not just good news for the people who've had a bad day. It's also a warning in a sense for people who've had good days. And the warning is every single day must be a fresh start with 2:55 God. There's no such There's no such thing as momentum or inertia in the Christian life. You know, in the physical world, an object in motion will continue in motion unless it's acted upon, right? That's a some law of energy, I think. Um 3:10 but that's not true spiritually. And we know it when things go badly. We we have this hope in our heart. Just cuz I had a bad day There's hope I can have a good day with the Lord in the future, and that's very important. But the flip side's also 3:24 true. And I found that I can be a victim of not being as aware of that, that I had a good day yesterday. That has no bearing on today. I don't have positive momentum. Just because I was wholehearted yesterday doesn't mean all 3:38 of a sudden I start with a head start today. No. Every day must begin with a fresh start with God. As I think um I read one time, maybe A.W. Tozer, someone said the tendency of the garden is ever towards the wilderness. 3:56 And if if a gardener just leaves the garden for a little while, the tendency of the wilderness is to uh take over the garden. And if you wait too long, there'll be it'll be like there was never a garden there to begin with. And 4:08 the same is true of our spiritual life. The tendency is uh is not towards fruitfulness, but to towards wilderness. And it's only by watchful cultivation that the gardens of our spiritual lives can remain fruitful even in the midst of a wilderness that's 4:26 constantly seeking to overtake our lives, so to speak. So, sleep and each new day that follows, every new morning is truly a gift from God. It's a gift because he knows we needed at the opportunity to start fresh with him each 4:41 day. Whether we had a good day in the past, whether we had a bad day in the past, no matter what, we need the chance to have a fresh start with God. And I wanted to talk about another verse that speaks of this renewal. We saw what 4:53 it says in 2 Corinthians 4 that it's possible that our inner man could be renewed every single day. And while that may not always happen for us, that's God's desire that our inner man is being renewed day by day. But there's another verse 5:07 in the New Testament that I have also been thinking about. It's in Romans 12. If you look at Romans 12. In Romans 12 and verse 2, it says, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the Here's the same word, 5:25 renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is." So, that you can know what God's will is. How do we know what God's will is? We need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. And again, this verse, what it 5:38 tells us, it says, "Do not be conformed to this world." This verse tells us that not only is it possible for a Christian to become conformed to this world, it tells us that's what will happen unless we are obeying this verse, which is 5:52 seeking to be transformed by the the regular regular renewal of our minds. What does renew mean? I was blessed to think about that. What does renew mean? If every day has been given as a gift that we might be renewed inwardly, what 6:07 does it mean to renew? It means to be made new again. So, renew, to make new again, right? So, in this verse says, "Be transformed by renewing your mind." What does it mean? Make your mind new again. We were given a new mind when we turned to the Lord. 6:26 But is the job done? Is our mind totally conformed to the Lord's? No. And we're commanded here, if you want to be transformed into the likeness of Christ, make your mind new again. That's the pathway of transformation. And I've seen in my own life, and what I 6:41 wanted to do is share three areas where I found I need to make a daily habit, a morning by morning habit of making my mind new again. And so, I want to share those three areas very briefly. There's a lot that could be said about them, but 6:58 I just want to just highlight, and especially for children, especially those of us who are new to the faith, maybe those of us who are tired, who've been believers for a long time. Maybe the reason is this, we haven't been made 7:09 new in our minds again today. Again today. And if you're a new Christian or you're or you're a child and you're thinking, "What does it mean to turn to the Lord?" There is a first turning, but then there's a continuous turning and returning and returning and 7:23 renewing and being transformed. And I want to talk about three areas where I have found it's incredibly important where I've had to make my mind new again. The first is in Psalm 143. If you want to turn there with me, Psalm 7:42 143 and verse 8. It says, "Let me hear your loving kindness in the morning, for I trust in you. Teach me in the the way in which I should walk, for to you I lift up my soul." And if you look in verse 11, it 8:00 says, "For the sake of your name, Lord, revive me or renew me. Revive me. In your righteousness, bring my soul out of trouble. Satisfy me in the morning with your loving kindness." So, the first way in which I need to make my mind new again is in regards to 8:18 God's love. Why does my mind have to be made new in regards to God's love? I have found in myself the uh the amazing tendency to live according to my feelings rather than God's word. And especially I found, and maybe this is 8:30 true for you, too. In a church where the where the standard is proclaimed at a very high level, where we want to press on to perfection, where we want to exhort every man to be complete in Christ, where we want to not proclaim anything which or we want 8:45 to proclaim all which is profitable. We don't want to we we don't want to exclude anything. Because of that standard we proclaim, it can be easy to be discouraged when we see the distance we still have to go. And I would say for myself, I I am not 8:58 nearly as in danger of neglecting God's commands as I am in danger of neglecting his love. And that's what we see in the Ephesians church in Revelation chapter 2. The Lord says, "You got a lot of good things going on for yourselves, but you have 9:15 left your first love." It's Revelation 2:3-5. Despite much obedience, they kept his commands, but they neglected God's love. And you know what the Lord tells them to do? Repent. When I neglect God's love, I have to 9:30 treat it as sin. And I have to repent. If I'm not making my mind new again in regard to God's love, I have to repent. That's what the Pharisees missed. They poured over the law with a fine-tooth comb. They had a very exacting attitude 9:47 towards others and towards themselves. Jesus said, "Do all that they say to do." But what they missed, they didn't know God as a father. Jesus called God his father, they wanted to kill him. They didn't know anything about God's 9:58 love, despite the fact that the law spoke of it. Love the Lord with all your heart and soul, but they missed it. The other critical reason I found that I need my mind to be made new again in regards to God's love is because I think 10:10 I already know it. I don't know if you've had this experience. Parents, think about this. How often do you tell your children you love them? Sometimes, I've noticed the younger they are, the more I It's almost all I say. 10:23 Like our baby, we have a uh under 1-year-old baby. Kind of the only thing I ever tell her is I love her, but I tell her all the time. And even as children grow, I'm telling them all the time. And you know what You know what drives me crazy? When I say I love 10:36 you and they go, "I know." Have you ever had that experience? What do you think when when you tell your children that you love them and they say, "I know." You know what I think? When a child says, "I know." My thought is, you have no idea. 10:52 And I think that's what God thinks, too. The Lord, he comes to us in the morning and he says, "Hey, I want to tell you how much I love you." We go, "I know." And he You know what the Lord says? You have no idea. Why do I need to make my mind new again 11:05 in regards to God's love? Because I have this tendency to think I know it when I don't. Or even if I do know it in truth, I have this fraction, this very small taste of what is a much broader, vaster ocean. And what Paul prayed, you know, the most 11:20 spiritual church he planted, as we've heard from brother Zac, is the Ephesians church. There were no corrections given in that letter. All those we've heard, they neglected this. You know, just you know, a few decades later, they were in trouble. But you 11:32 know what Paul prayed for them? You think the most spiritually minded church, what should I pray for them? What would What would the apostle pray? What we see in Ephesians chapter 3 is he basically We don't have to go through the whole prayer, but if you 11:45 look through the verses 14 through 19, what he says is, "You know why I pray for you guys? I pray that you might truly know God's love so that you might be filled up to the fullness of God. You who want the fullness of the life of 11:59 Jesus Christ, you know what you need? You need to be rooted and grounded in God's love. The most spiritual church, you know what I pray for you? Not some exalted theology or doctrine. I pray you might really know God's love. Because 12:11 that's how you grow in the fullness of the life of Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter how much how mature we are, how mature we think we are. We need to be drenched in God's love again today. So, that's the first area where I found 12:24 I have to make my mind new again. I need to know God's love again today. And he's given me a new day today. He appointed day and night and sleep so that I would have a fresh start with him. And every fresh start with God has to 12:37 start with his love. The second area that I wanted to talk about is where I need to make my mind new again is in regards to my surrender to God. If you look with me at Romans chapter 12, the verse just before the verse that we 12:54 started with. Right before he says, "Be transformed by renewing your mind." You know what he says? Romans chapter 12 verse 1, he says, "I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, present your bodies as a living and holy 13:06 sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship." So, why does my mind Why do I say my mind needs to be made new in regards to my surrender? I have found that there's this human tendency to overestimate my own 13:22 strength, the strength of my resolve. You hear children say these things, "I promise, I'll never do it again." Or they get some toy and they go, "I'm going to keep this forever." Or this is my most favorite thing ever. And yet we 13:34 see, how quickly do those favorite things get forgotten or lost or promises broken and disobeyed? And we can be drawn to make sweeping statements of surrender to God. We can say, and we probably did, hopefully we said, "I give you everything, 13:47 everything." But yesterday's surrender isn't valid today. That's what I found. And we've heard from brother Zac when the when the Israelites were commanded to sacrifice the bull, they had to do it piece by piece. And I would say and 14:00 we've heard how that represents pieces of our bodies. I think another thing it represents is our lives have to be given day by day. It's not enough to say, "I give the rest of my life to you, God." The Lord says, "No, no, no. Give me today." 14:12 In view of the mercies of God, present your bodies, I would say again today as a holy sacrifice. We can only give God our lives one day at a time. Every day, I want to live for him forever, but I have to renew that vow every single day. It's not enough to 14:27 surrender all to Jesus just once. I want to surrender all to him again and again and again. It's a daily decision. There's a verse in Ezekiel 46 that blessed me. If you want to look at it, it's it's again when the the people are 14:42 being commanded to They're They're going to come back. There's Ezekiel is prophesying about what it will be like when they come back to Jerusalem. When they come back to build the temple, what we saw with that Ezra was doing earlier 14:53 in the meeting. Um and in Ezekiel 46 and verse 13, it says, "You shall provide a lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering to the Lord." How often? Daily. Morning by morning you shall provide it. And I like that phrase, morning by 15:13 morning. I need to I need to offer myself without blemish, without reservation, without hesitation to the Lord again today. This is my spiritual service of worship. That's what it says in Romans 12. In John chapter 4, Jesus, when he was 15:29 speaking with the woman at the well, he said, "A time is coming when the true worshipers will worship God in spirit." And it's not just in our bodies or in our songs, that's not where worship happens. Romans 12's Romans 12, the 15:42 verse we just saw says, "This is your spiritual act of worship." Not singing, not being emotionally moved me saying, but when you present your body to God. Why does my mind need to be made new in regard to worship? The forces of 15:57 Christendom are assaulting me to define worship as emotionalism. But feeling emotional while singing is not worship. Giving Jesus all of my life again today is worship. Giving him my thoughts, giving him my plans, giving him my interactions. Take 16:15 up my cross every day as he says, put to deed put to death the deeds of the body by the power of the spirit. Today, that's worship. And I have to relabel it because the my emotions and my experience in Christendom tells me worship is one 16:29 thing. I have to say, when I offer my body again to God today, this is worship. And what Jesus said to the woman in John 4 is, "Such worshipers the Father seeks." So, I want that I have to renew my mind every day. A fresh surrender. 16:45 A fresh start with God means a fresh not only being immersed in his love again, but a fresh surrender. That's the second area. The third area that I found, the last thing I'll say, that I have where I have to make my mind new according to God's 17:00 word again, is not just in regards to his love and not just in regards to my surrender. What's left? There's one more morning by morning expression I wanted to mention. It comes from Isaiah chapter 50. Morning by morning. 17:17 I've been drenched in his love again today. I have offered I've presented my body as a living sacrifice again today. Then what's next? Do I rush out the door? Look at Isaiah chapter 50 with me, please. In verse 4, the Lord God has given me the tongue of 17:35 disciples that I might know how to sustain the weary one with a word. He awakens me morning by morning. He awakens my ear to listen as a disciple. So, what does this verse tell us? Every single day, I need to listen to God again today. 17:53 Why does my mind need to be made new again in regards to listening? Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceeds today from the mouth of God." That's in reference to, by the way, in Exodus when the Lord provided manna. And 18:09 you can look there later in Exodus 16 verse 21, it says, "They gathered it morning by morning." And when Jesus says, "Man shall live by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God," it has to be a morning by morning 18:22 interaction and listening. There's an incredible tendency in our flesh to live according to the law, to live according to the knowledge of good and evil. Just because we've heard and learned so many things in our lives, just because we've 18:35 had so many experiences with God, just because we've listened to so many sermons or taken so many Bible studies, there's a great tendency in our flesh to coast by on what we already know. And to live according to our knowledge of good 18:47 and evil. But the Lord wants to live us to live according to the tree of life, which is listening to him. And you know, in the book of Ezekiel in chapters, I think 11 and 36 both, he speaks of removing our heart of stone 19:00 and giving us a heart of flesh. What's the difference between stone and flesh? What got written on stone was permanent. You can't scratch it out. It's Or you can't erase it, right? It's permanent. But what's a a heart of flesh is 19:14 sensitive. A stone My heart of stone feels nothing. My heart of flesh is impressionable. And we make a mistake if we think, "Okay, the new covenant law. Forget the old covenant law, but the new covenant law has now been written on my heart 19:29 like it was engraved on those tablets." No. The defining mark of the heart of flesh is not that a new covenant law gets written there forever, but it's that we become increasingly sensitive to the voice of God. But to hear his voice and to live by the 19:46 word which is proceeding, I have to make my mind new again today. And I say, it doesn't matter how much I've learned, how much I've experienced, if I don't hear from you today, God, I'll die." It sounds extreme, but Jesus said, "Man 20:01 shall live by the words which proceed from God's mouth." What's the opposite? Man shall die if no words proceed from God's mouth. Do I see it as a matter of life and death? Lord, I have to hear from you. I believe there's a psalm that it says, 20:17 "If I don't hear from you, it'll I'll be like one who goes down to the pit." It's like I've died, Lord. So, that's the third area. I have to make my mind new again today in regards to listening to God. No matter how much I listened 20:31 before. So, it's a recap. Why did God give us rest? Why did he give us sleep at night? That we might experience inward renewal or daily, countless, fresh starts with God in our lives. And the three areas I have found where I 20:46 really need to seek to make my mind new again that I might be as it says in Romans 12:2, transformed into the likeness of Christ. I have to make my mind new again to know God's love again this morning. To surrender my life to him again this 21:03 morning. And to listen and live by the word which proceeds from his mouth again this morning. Yesterday's knowledge of God's love isn't enough. Yesterday's surrender isn't enough. Yesterday's listening isn't enough. I need it again today. And I want to 21:20 make my mind new according to his word, according to his command, and trust that he will give me the life of Jesus Christ in increasing measure as I depend upon him and obey him.
