Romans Chapter 8 and verse number 29.
Romans 829, which reads,
For whom he did foreknow,
he also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of his son,
that we might be the firstborn,
that sorry, that he might be
the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
then he also called,
and whom he called,
then he also justified,
and whom he justified,
then he also glorified.
The title for the sermon this morning is
Conforming Yourself After Christ.
Conforming yourself after Christ.
And it was important that I went
through last week's sermon,
which was about appreciating your uniqueness,
your individuality.
We all have our individual personalities
around personal gifts and talents
that God has given us even interests.
And we've all a special creation of God.
And so before I went into this topic
of conforming ourselves after Christ,
I wanted to make sure that you understand
that even though we are
commanded to change,
in fact, that's what I covered last week.
You know, it's not just about,
well, I'm unique, I'm different.
No one wants to change.
No one should change me.
Well, God's word should change you.
We have a big book, okay?
God's desire is that we would be changed,
that we would be conformed
to the image of his son,
as we read there in Romans chapter eight.
And, but at the same time,
while we are aiming to conform ourselves,
this is not to lose our individuality,
not to lose our uniqueness,
not to lose our personalities, all right?
Because we're not here
trying to create a cult, a cult following.
And we all look the same.
We all dress the same.
We all have the same haircuts.
We all speak the same.
And people just look at us like some weird cult,
just because, not because we're after Christ,
not because we've conformed ourselves after Christ,
but because we've conformed ourselves after a man
or after a man's ideal.
Yeah, you're gonna look like a weirdo,
but you're not actually following up
in the steps of Christ.
You know, the Lord God still wants us
to have our uniqueness,
but we are commanded to change, all right?
We all have bad characters.
We all have bad behaviors.
We all have bad things in our lives,
bad habits, things that are wicked,
the lust of the flesh, the pride of life.
We all have a brethren,
and God wants us to change that about ourselves.
Now, before I get into this sermon,
let me just quickly cover this topic,
because there are those,
well, just what we read there in Romans 8, 29.
There are many that say,
well, you know, we've been predestined.
This is the theology of Calvinism or reformed theology.
And they'll say, see, God has predestined us
whether we're going to be saved or not.
God's already decided who he wants to see saved
and who he wants to see damned.
And so when it comes to the majority of people,
you know, I guess 99% of people are reprobates
even before they're born.
That's the theology of Calvinism.
These people will be,
it's impossible for them to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
because God's not going to give them his grace.
Jesus Christ did not die for their sins.
He only died for the select few that God, you know,
decided who would be saved.
And they would take this passage here in Romans 8, 29
and say, well, we've been predestined to be saved.
Well, let's read it again.
Romans 8, 29, for whom he did for know,
he also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his son.
Is this saying that God has predestinated some
to go to heaven?
Is it saying that he's predestinated some
to have their sins forgiven?
To be saved from their sins?
No, it's not saying that, right?
It's saying that there are some
that have been predestinated to be conformed
to the image of his son.
Salvation isn't, all right, how do I be saved?
It's not be conformed to the image of his son.
It's not, you know, sirs, what must I do to be saved?
Well, be more like Jesus.
No, if that's salvation, be like Jesus,
be conformed to his son.
That's a workspace salvation.
And guess what?
You'll never reach it
because the standard of Jesus Christ is perfection.
He's never sinned.
And so what you're saying is, well,
God has selected some to never sin
and that's how they get saved.
That's stupidity.
No, the predestination here is for those
that are already saved.
Those that have believed on Jesus Christ,
whosoever will, yeah, the Lord God has died.
Jesus Christ has died for the sins of all the world.
And whoever is saved, God has given us the new man.
He's given us the power of the Holy Spirit.
He's given us the word of God, the scriptures.
So we now as saved individuals,
we've been given a destiny to be conformed
of the image of Jesus Christ of his son.
And so that's what it's teaching here.
It's not teaching this is how we get saved
or why God selected us or something like that to be saved.
No, this is the destiny of someone who is saved.
You know, we're on this journey to be conformed
to the image of his son.
And so again, I'm not trying to cause you
to lose your uniqueness or your identity,
but we are commanded to change
and be conformed to Jesus Christ.
And I would say, of course, that the perfect man,
we're going for the perfect man series, aren't we?
Of course, the perfect man will be someone
who has changed, who is Christ-like.
You would look at this individual and you say,
boy, I can see Christ in that individual, okay?
Because he's conformed himself after Jesus Christ.
Now I've taught about this.
So we teach about this all the time.
You know, if you could summarize every sermon
that we ever preach, if you could just take one principle
out of every sermon that we say,
it's always be more like Christ.
I mean, that's the goal of every sermon we preach.
Either we'd be more Christ-like
in our understanding of the scriptures,
or we'd be more Christ-like in our actions,
in our feelings, in our emotions, in our thought life.
And that's really the point of preaching.
That's the point of reading the Bible
and being conformed to Christ.
And so, you know, you might ask the question,
what do I have to do to be conformed,
to conform myself up to Christ?
Well, it's an easy answer.
And the easy answer is walking the Spirit.
That was one of the major things that we read there
in Romans 8 as well.
I'll quickly read to you in Galatians 5 16.
This I say then, walk in the Spirit
and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
So you wanna overcome this flesh,
the lust, the sin, the wickedness of this flesh?
The Bible says walk in the Spirit.
So that's the easy answer.
Walk in the Spirit.
That's the topic of every sermon we ever preach
that you've ever heard.
It's be more Christ-like.
Walk in the Spirit.
Stop walking after the old man.
That's the summary of every sermon you hear.
And so that's the easy answer, okay?
But the harder answer is,
well, how do I conform myself up to Christ?
I know what I need to do.
I know I need to walk in the Spirit.
I know I need to be more Christ-like,
but how do I do that, Pastor Kevin?
And of course, that's where the difficulty comes
because this is a lifelong journey.
You'll never reach it, even to the end of your life.
You only complete this really
when we receive our new resurrected bodies.
It is hard to attain.
It is a mission.
It is something that God wants us to do,
to be constantly changed every day that we live,
that we become more Christ-like every day,
every month, every year that goes on in our life, okay?
And so we should never become stagnant in our Christianity
and think, oh, we've just reached it.
We've made it.
No, continue on because until you're like Christ,
continue purifying yourself,
continue to live in that holy life.
Now, what does it mean to conform?
If we're gonna conform ourselves
after the image of His Son,
to conform is to make similar,
inform nature or character,
to bring into agreement correspondence or harmony, all right?
So if you're conforming yourself after Christ,
then that means that your nature,
your character is going to be more Christ-like, okay?
So you haven't ever reached it.
You're still at a point that you haven't reached it.
I'm still at a point that I haven't reached it,
but I hope you're becoming more like Christ
as time goes on.
And so to form ourselves,
to conform ourselves after Christ
is to form ourselves into the nature and character of Christ.
And of course, this is hard to do, hard to do, okay?
Christ set a very high standard.
His standard is perfection.
And we're never gonna get there.
Thank God that salvation is not on perfection.
Thank God that salvation is not based
on how much we've conformed ourselves after Christ
because then none of us will go to heaven, all right?
And so, as I said, our personality remains the same,
but our character needs to change
to become more like Christ.
And I want us to be careful once again,
because we had a look at last week's sermon,
and I said that it is a sin to emulate.
It is a sin to imitate.
We're not trying to emulate.
We're not trying to imitate.
We're trying to conform ourselves after the image of Christ.
And that is without losing our individuality.
Now, if you can please quickly
turn to Ephesians chapter four,
turn to Ephesians chapter four and verse number 13.
Ephesians chapter four and verse number 13.
Ephesians 4, 13.
When I started this series on the perfect man,
this was basically the starting point.
I just wanna revisit it once again.
Let's have a look at it.
Ephesians chapter four, verse number 13.
The context of this passage is talking about
how important our church is
and how important that different people
with different gifts and different ministries
are able to serve in the house of God.
But it says in Ephesians 4, 13,
till, so we're here to serve one another,
till we all come into the unity of the faith
and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man.
That's where we get to the idea of the perfect man series.
But then it says,
unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
You see, the Lord's God, the Lord's will for us,
the destiny for us
is that we will become the fullness of Christ
that would reach that stature.
And once again, brethren,
it's not gonna happen in our lifetimes, yeah?
And so we just need to understand,
you'll never reach it, okay?
We're desiring to be the perfect man
and the perfect man is someone
who desires to conform himself of the price,
but knowing that in this life while we're in this flesh,
we're never going to reach it, okay?
And the reason we're never going to reach that,
let me just quickly read to you
from First John chapter three, verse one,
which says, behold,
what manner of love the Father have bestowed upon us,
that we should be called the sons of God,
therefore the world knoweth us not,
because it knew him not.
Beloved, now are we the sons of God,
and it doth not yet appear what we shall be,
but we know that when he shall appear,
we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is.
And so we won't be completely 100% like Jesus
in the fullness of Christ until he appears.
And when does Christ appear?
He appears at his second coming,
at the time of the rapture, at the time of the resurrection,
because that's when we receive our new resurrected bodies,
this flesh is done away with, brethren,
and our spirit, the new man, will be in perfect harmony
with the new body that Christ gives us,
an incorruptible flesh,
and then we're going to be like Christ.
We'll finally reach that stature,
that destiny that God the Father has in store for us,
will finally be reached at the time of the resurrection.
Now, in saying that, we should not get to the point
to be like, well, Pastor Kevin, I'm just, you know,
I feel like I've reached my limit here.
I think I'm good enough for God.
Like, I think, not for salvation, obviously,
but I just think, you know, I'm living a decent life here.
I'm not an overall wicked sinner like the rest of this world.
I'm happy with the level that I've reached,
and this is where I'm going to stay,
because there's nothing I can do about it, Pastor Kevin.
I'm never going to reach the fullness of Christ
until he returns.
But let me keep reading in 1 John 3,
after we just saw that we're going to be like him,
when he appears in verse number three, it says,
and every man that have this hope in him,
so if you have the hope that Christ is returning,
and that your hope will be like Christ
at the resurrection, it says,
and every man that have this hope in him,
purify of himself, even as he is pure.
So if you truly desire to see Jesus Christ,
you truly have the hope of the resurrection, brethren,
then we should not be content to stay
at the level that we are.
We ought to desire to purify ourselves,
continually purify ourselves.
Why?
Even as he is pure.
We know that one day we're going to be pure,
like Jesus Christ, so let's work on it now.
Let's not go, well, that's the future.
We'll deal with that later.
No, the commandment is that we ought to conform ourselves
after the image of his son, even on this earth.
And so please, never get to the point
where you're comfortable where you are.
Maybe be content with where you've gotten to, okay?
Yes, you can look back at the past and your past life
and say, Pastor Kevin, I've grown, I'm more knowledgeable.
I've overcome certain sins in my life.
I'm really happy that I'm growing
in knowledge of the scriptures.
Praise God, hey, that's awesome.
Rejoice in that, praise God.
But don't get to the point where now I'm comfortable.
The sins that I still struggle with, they're too hard,
so I'm just going to put up with going.
I'm going to continue sinning every day anyway,
so I'm just happy with where I'm at.
I'm doing enough, I'm coming to church
for the morning service,
I'm coming to church for the midweek service,
I go soul-winning, Pastor Kevin.
I've reached the level.
Let it never be, and look,
I'm not trying to downplay soul-winning at all.
Soul-winning is the most important task
that God has given us to do, okay?
But don't think of soul-winning as this epitome
where this is the highest level.
And look, it may feel that way
because so many people don't go soul-winning, right?
There are so many churches with the right gospel message
and they refuse knuckles.
They would rather just put pieces of paper
in people's letterboxes, the tracts,
and go, well, I've done something for the Lord, right?
And I understand there are so many Christians
that are just not serving God in this area.
Hey, but if you're serving God in this area,
praise God for you, all right?
But don't think this is the highest level
because you don't have to be conformed by Christ
to go soul-winning.
In fact, you could be saved on day number one,
a complete carnal Christian, a complete babe in Christ,
and you can still go out and preach the gospel, all right?
Preaching the gospel is like the least thing
that we should be doing, all right?
And we have examples of this in the Bible,
even when Christ went to the Samaritan woman at the well,
she gets saved, she merely goes into the city
and starts preaching Christ on day number one.
And she's living in adultery, right?
She's living in fornication with some other man
who's not her husband.
And even she's able to go there
and preach to the city about Jesus Christ, okay?
So soul-winning, look, I'm not downplaying it,
it's important, praise God for you if you're a soul-winner,
but don't think, well, I go soul-winning
and other Christians don't, so I reached a higher level,
and so I'm happy with where I'm at.
No, I mean, that's the least we should be doing, okay?
We should continue to conform ourselves
after the Lord Jesus Christ,
continue to improve, continue to change
until you get to that point of the resurrection,
and then you'll be complete, okay?
All right, now let's talk about
how can we measure ourselves?
How well can we look at our lives
or how can others look upon us
and determine whether we are conforming ourselves
after Christ?
And I think there is one key way
that we can sort of look at ourselves,
look at our nature, look at our reactions,
look at our personality, look at our emotions
to determine whether we are conforming ourselves
after Christ.
And I've already preached an entire series on this,
I'm not gonna go into this in any great depth,
but I truly believe the best way
is by looking at the fruit of the Spirit, all right?
So can you please quickly go to Galatians five,
turn to Galatians chapter five?
And I've already done a whole series on this,
we've looked at every single fruit of the Spirit.
If you wanna go back to that series,
I recommend that you do.
But I truly believe the best way to know
if your actions and your decisions,
yes, not just your actions, but even your thought life,
your decisions are conforming of the Christ
is how well does your life line up
with the fruit of the Spirit?
What is the fruit of the Spirit?
Well, the more you walk in the Spirit
and the less you walk after the flesh,
the Holy Spirit is able to develop this fruit in your life.
Okay?
It's the job of the Holy Spirit.
But you say, well, it's the job of the Holy Spirit,
I've got nothing to do with it.
No, because you can quench the Spirit.
You can stop the Holy Spirit doing a work in your life.
And so this is a great way to see
how much time have you given the Holy Spirit
to operate in your life and through your life?
Galatians 5 22 says,
but the fruit of the Spirit is love.
Now, when you consider yourself,
would you say I'm a loving person?
You say, well, yeah, Pastor Kevin, I'm a loving person.
And I look at myself, I look at my life
and yep, these fruits of the Spirit, I line up with it.
Well, let me just quickly read to you
a portion of scripture in Proverbs 20 verse six.
It says, most men will proclaim everyone whose own goodness,
but a faithful man who can find.
The Bible says it's hard to find a faithful man,
but every man will say they're faithful and good, okay?
So actually, yes, examine yourself.
There's nothing wrong with examining yourself.
That's a biblical concept.
But one sure way to determine
whether you line up with the fruit of the Spirit
is if other people recognize this in you, yeah?
Because the fruit of the Spirit,
the idea of it is that it would be an outward expression
of who we are and that others will be blessed
because of the fruit that the Holy Spirit
has developed in our lives.
And so would other people say to you that,
yes, you're a loving person, you have great love in you.
Next one is joy.
You know, are you a happy, joyful person?
Or would people say, no, he's actually depressed
and frustrated and angry about everything.
Yeah, look, is there a time to get angry
and even hate certain things?
Of course there is.
But the primary, you know, characteristic of your life,
you know, are you just known as the angry person
around the place?
Or are you kind of known as a happy content person
even within COVID world?
You know, are you just a happy, joyful person
that people can talk about?
Peace.
People say, well, this is a man of peace.
Or are they saying this is a man of conflict?
Long suffering.
You know, does this person suffer long?
Is this person patient?
Gentleness.
Are you gentle with people
even when you wanna be a little bit rough?
Are you gentle with how you deal with one another?
Goodness.
Faith.
Are you a faithful person?
Meekness.
Are you known to be a meek person?
You know, you elevate other people above you.
Is that how people look at you?
Temperance.
The people will look at you and say,
well, this person is in control of his emotions.
Or the people look at you and say,
well, this person blows, you know, gets overly angry,
gets overly upset, gets even overly excited sometimes.
Or do you have your emotions in check?
Against such, there is no law.
Now notice the verse number 24.
And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh
with the affections and lusts.
You see, to develop these fruits of the Spirit,
we must crucify the flesh, all right?
So we're commanded to walk in the Spirit.
And as we walk in the Spirit,
the Holy Spirit develops these fruits in our life, brethren.
But it's only possible if you've crucified that flesh.
And here's the thing,
you gotta crucify that flesh every day.
In fact, maybe even every hour.
It's always there.
And just keep crucifying it, right?
When you have a decision to make and you say,
do I make it the spiritual decision that pleases God?
Or do I make a fleshy kind of decision that pleases me?
You know what, you need to know,
I'm gonna crucify my flesh right now,
and I'm just gonna walk in the Spirit, be led in the Spirit,
and I'm gonna have these fruits of my Spirit in my life.
It's a decision we have to make.
But it says,
and they that are Christ have crucified the flesh
with the affections and lusts.
Look at verse number 25.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Do we live in the Spirit?
Of course we do.
The moment that you're saved,
the Lord God has given us the Holy Spirit of God
to indwell us.
And we live in the Spirit.
This is what gives us everlasting life.
Praise God, being born in the Spirit.
Okay, you live in the Spirit.
Praise God, you've got everlasting life.
Now walk in the Spirit, okay?
That's the next part.
Not of salvation, but of our walk, our fellowship,
the way that we conform ourselves
after the image of Jesus Christ.
And so walking in the Spirit
or conforming ourselves after Christ
is the same thing as crucifying the flesh.
You cannot have one foot fleshly and one foot spiritually.
You're doing one or the other,
and you need to make that decision
every moment of your life, okay?
Conforming yourself after Christ is, yes, the outward,
but also the thought life, the emotions, okay?
It affects your body, your mind, and your heart.
And these are all areas in our life
that we need to change and be conformed to.
I'll quickly read to you from 1 Thessalonians 5 23,
which says, in the very God of peace,
sanctify you wholly.
And I sanctify you wholly, okay?
We're going through the perfect man series,
and perfect means whole, remember that?
It doesn't mean 100% without error or process,
because none of us can do that right at this point in time,
but it means to be whole, complete, okay?
Sanctify you wholly, and I pray God,
your whole spirits and soul and body
be preserved blameless unto the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is why we should not remain content and say,
I'm happy at the level I've reached, Pastor Kevin,
and I'll wait till Jesus comes back
so I can become the fullness of Christ.
No, we want to preserve ourselves blameless in our walk,
in our life, you know, that when Christ comes back,
we're not like in the middle of just satisfying
this wicked flesh or something, right?
That we're more, walk in the spirit,
that would be wonderful.
You know what, when Christ comes back,
I want to see if I'm there, if this is my time,
I want to be, you know, Christ comes back,
I want to be like seen as like in the middle of a soul
in presentation or something, right?
Or in the middle of baptizing someone,
in the middle of running,
holding some underground church service or something, right?
That's what I would want when Christ comes back,
not Christ comes back and I'm like satisfying my flesh,
you know, walking in the old man
and like, and just giving up on growing after Christ.
That would be a, that would be, you know,
that would be embarrassing, amen?
So we want to make sure that we preserve ourselves,
spirit, soul and body, blameless in our walk, right?
Unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And so this is the perfect man.
Perfect man has been aware
that you need to keep your body, your soul.
Well, our soul's already saved, our spirit, our new man,
that's 100% perfect, but now our body,
that's the hardest thing, the flesh,
because it doesn't want to do the things
that God wants us to do.
The flesh just wants to do what man wants to do
and what the world tells us to do.
And so conforming ourselves after Christ, brethren,
is what we do.
Yeah, it's our body, it's what we think,
yeah, that's our mind, it's how we feel,
it's our emotions, how we react to certain things.
That's the heart.
And God wants to change all these areas in our lives
to be more Christ-like.
Can you please turn to, yeah,
please turn to Romans chapter 12.
Turn to Romans chapter 12, please.
Romans chapter 12 and verse number one.
Romans 12, verse number one reads,
I beseech you therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God,
that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice.
You know what?
God wants our body as well.
God wants our flesh as well, all right?
And this flesh has a sinful nature.
And so if we're going to sacrifice this body to the Lord,
we're giving it to the Lord, right?
We're saying this body no longer belongs to us,
but it belongs to the Lord God.
And we need to give it to the Lord, right?
As a sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,
which is your reasonable service.
And it's hard, right?
It's hard for this body to conform itself
after the new man, the spirit,
or conform itself after the Christ.
And God still wants us to present this body
as his sacrifice.
Now, listen, we know the stories of the Old Testament.
When they would bring their sacrifices,
they were to bring, let's say, a lamb without spot,
a lamb which was not sick, okay?
A lamb that wasn't blind, for example, okay?
It had to be the best lamb that the guy had, okay?
He brought his best sacrifice.
If we're to give our bodies to the Lord as a sacrifice,
we need to give the best that we can.
Again, you're never going to be 100% perfect.
I understand that, brethren.
But the more we conform ourselves after Jesus Christ,
the better the sacrifice of our body will be unto the Lord.
Okay?
It says a living sacrifice,
and so the Lord God doesn't want us to actually
literally kill ourselves as a sacrifice,
but a living sacrifice, okay?
Holy, acceptable unto God,
which is your reasonable service.
I love that word, reasonable service.
It's not like God's asking too much from us.
I mean, he sent his son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
he gave his life for us.
He gave his perfect life, his righteousness unto us.
He took our wickedness, he took our sins upon his flesh,
and he was crucified for us.
The most reasonable thing that God can ask from us
now that we're saved,
is to just give our living bodies
as a sacrifice unto him.
And listen, the more you conform yourself after Christ,
the better that sacrifice is, amen?
I'll quickly read, say it in Romans 12.
I'll quickly read to you from 1 Corinthians 6, 19.
What?
Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost,
which is in you, which ye have of God,
and ye are not your own?
Listen, once you're saved, you do not belong to yourself.
You belong to the Lord God.
Because it says in verse number 20,
for ye are bought with a price.
What price was that?
You were bought by the price of the shed blood
of Jesus Christ, okay?
Therefore glorify God in your body
and in your spirit, which are God's.
So yeah, the spirit, the new man that God has given us,
the revived spirit, born of the spirit,
that belongs to God, but even this body,
even this body with a sinful nature,
even this body that's going to be put in the grave and rot,
okay, because God's gonna give us a new resurrected body,
but even this body that we live in, day by day,
we ought to say, no, God, this body belongs to you.
And so I'm gonna serve you for the rest of my life.
Please conform myself after Jesus Christ.
Back to Romans chapter 12.
Let's keep going then, verse number two.
Romans 12, verse number two.
And be not conformed to this world.
So Brevin, you're giving a decision.
You know, we've got a crossroads.
Do we conform ourselves after Christ
or do we conform ourselves to this world?
And obviously when you conform yourself to this world,
you're walking after the flesh, okay?
You're giving into the flesh, the desires of this flesh,
this world, and you've got a choice.
You know, God's not gonna force your hand, all right?
Now, if you conform yourself after the world,
hey, here's our heavenly father, he'll chastise us,
he'll judge us, he'll correct us for our profit
with the hope that we would, you know,
be broken and humble ourselves before God and get right.
But what he really wants,
instead of us being chastised and judged by God,
rather that we just walk and be conformed up for Christ
so that we're not given into this world
and this world is full of lust,
this world is full of desires.
I understand man's heart, you know,
to have great riches, to have great possessions.
I understand, I understand it all, right?
The pride of man, because we all have it within us,
that flesh desires certain things.
But we say, no, no flesh.
Let's not conform ourselves after this world.
But let's keep going.
It says, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable
and perfect will of God.
And so brethren, in order to have this flesh,
this body as a living sacrifice, holy for God,
holy, acceptable unto God,
we need to start with the mind.
This is where it begins.
It all starts here, okay?
And so what you fill your mind with
will have lasting effects on what you do with this body.
Obviously, you fill this mind with the love of money.
You fill this mind with Hollywood entertainment.
You know, you fill this mind with all,
whatever filth you can think of,
well, guess what's gonna happen?
This body's gonna follow after the mind, okay?
It's gonna do whatever the mind wants it to do.
But if you fill this mind with spiritual things,
you fill this mind after Jesus Christ,
you fill this mind with singing praise unto the Lord
and we've borrowed it in church attendance,
then obviously your body's going to be subject
unto that mind.
You know, your body's gonna desire to do that,
which is right and righteous before God.
And so do you conform yourself to the world
or do you conform yourself after Christ?
This is the battle that we have all the time, every day, okay?
And you're gonna have this battle till the day you die, okay?
So it's not just what we do, but it's the mindset.
You really need to work in that mind.
You know, whatever you sow to, brethren,
you reap what you sow.
You wanna sow to things that are righteous,
you're going to be able to do righteous works.
You sow to that which is corrupt,
your body's going to do that which is corrupt.
It's gonna sin, it's going to offend the Lord.
And so when it comes to our minds, you know,
generally we think out of our minds
about making certain decisions, all right?
And you know, what this is not teaching,
well, we need to understand something.
What this is not teaching is that your life
must all just revolve around the church or something.
Like, you know, you wake up in the morning and look,
I think it's a good practice.
Wake up in the morning, read a scripture,
sing a song of praise unto the Lord,
have a word of prayer, amen.
I believe that's awesome, okay?
But it's not saying that your whole life,
that's what it is, all right?
You just wake up, you know, you're just reading the Bible.
As soon as you get up, you start listening to him.
Yeah, start singing hymns.
And then when you're done singing hymns,
you start listening to preaching.
And then once you're done listening to preach
and you go soul winning,
and then when you're done soul winning, you go to church.
And then when you're done with church,
you get back and you just read your Bible again,
and you start listening to other preaching again,
and you just start praying again.
And you know, just 24 seven,
all you're doing is just your head in the word of God.
That's not what it's saying, okay?
We understand that our lives are more
than just what we do in church and how we serve the Lord.
We still have a life to live.
We still need to provide.
We still need to feed ourselves.
We still need to see friends and work a job
and whatever it is, brethren, we still have things to do.
So it's not all just, you know, every little thing,
you just gotta make sure you're in church.
And listen, you're gonna turn it out to be a weird person,
if that's all you do, brethren, okay?
We still have a life to live,
but we must understand that at least we must dedicate
some time every day because that flesh is there every day
to the things of God.
You know, be praying constantly, you know,
be reading your Bible early in the morning.
Yes, you know, I have the habit of reading it
in the morning.
I have the habit of reading it at night.
Those are the two places.
And then, because I prepare so many sermons,
four times a week, I'm usually in the scriptures
all the time anyway, that's part of my job, okay?
But for the rest of you guys, hey,
read the scriptures in the morning,
read the scriptures at night,
a portion here, a portion there, right?
Don't forget to pray.
Confess your sins before the Lord.
When church service is on, go to church services.
But listen, you don't need to take up your entire life
around these things.
God understands we have a life to live as well.
But here's the thing, here's the key.
When we are living the rest of our lives,
we need to make sure that we transform our minds,
that we renew our minds after Christ.
What does this look like?
Well, you need to pass judgment on everything that you do.
Is this something, as we saw there in Romans 12, two,
is what am I about to do with my life?
Is it good?
Is it acceptable?
Is it perfect?
Is it aligned with the will of God?
Now, for those of you that work a secular job, all right,
you say, look, I work a job
and I've got to provide for my family.
And look, Pastor Kevin, I go to my workplace
and really, you know, we've got the world's music
blaring in the background.
I don't have a choice behind that.
You know, it's a company's decision.
You know, well, here's the thing.
Is working a job good?
Of course.
Is it acceptable for God
that you go and provide for your family?
Of course.
Is it perfect?
Yes, you have to.
It's part of your life.
You can't just be like, well, the whole world's wicked.
The whole world hates God.
And every job I go to, Pastor Kevin,
I'm not going to be around Christians
and they're going to say curse words
and they're going to use God's name in vain.
And every now and again, the homo's going to walk
into the company building.
I just can't work here.
No, that's ridiculous.
But the thing, the point is that whatever it is
that we do, brethren, we look at our minds
and say, Lord, is this good, acceptable unto you?
Is this perfect in accordance to your will?
And if it is, brethren, praise God, you do it.
Okay.
And if you determine, no, this is not acceptable to God,
don't do it.
And you know, this is just,
let me just give you a real example of this.
Okay, just a real life example.
Cause we're coming into summer now, you know,
and we are in December.
So it is summer.
It is summer now, amen.
It is summer now and I know on the Sunshine Coast,
beautiful beaches, beautiful coastline.
I love it.
I think it's beautiful, beautiful creation of God.
Okay.
But as it is amongst the Sunshine Coast residents,
you know, one of the major things that we do
during summer is go to the beach.
And look, there is so much beach.
There's so much beach there.
All right.
But here's what I'm going to do.
When I decided to take my family to the beach,
I'm not going to go somewhere
where I know I'm going to see nakedness.
I'm not going to go to a place where I know
my eyes are going to fall upon some woman in her bikini
or several women in her bikinis.
Okay.
Cause I, okay, is it good and acceptable
to go to the beach and have a swim?
Of course it is.
God's creation.
God wants us to enjoy his creation, right?
It's good to enjoy.
Have a swim, yeah, absolutely.
If it's a hot day, go call yourself.
It's a good exercise.
Praise God, enjoy God's creation, amen.
But is it good and acceptable
that I go to a place that's full of nakedness?
That I'm seeing women walk around
and basically in their underwear?
Of course not.
At that point you say, this is not good and acceptable.
This is not the will of God.
I need to remove myself from this situation
because I'm trying to conform myself after Jesus Christ.
That's what I'm talking about, brethren.
Every little decision that we need to make with life
that has nothing to do necessarily with church
and barbering and singing hymns and going slow in.
All the other decisions that we make in our life,
we need to conform that after Christ.
Would Christ be on this beach with me right now
about to have a swim
in front of all these women in the nakedness?
Of course not.
You know Christ would not do that.
So why are you doing it?
Okay, why are you doing it?
Especially on the Sunshine Coast
where we have so many places to go
where you can just have your own private swim,
your own family, okay?
I mean, there are so many options up there, brethren.
Praise God.
I love the Sunshine Coast.
Can't wait to get back up there.
Hopefully I get back up there once the rain
and this wet weather stops.
Hey, but that's just one example.
Can you please quickly,
no, actually, you know what?
Stay there, stay there in Romans 12.
I'm gonna quickly read to you
because you might say, well, Pastor Kevin,
you know, I've gotten to a point.
I can go to the beach.
You don't understand, Pastor Kevin.
I have the ability to go to the beach
and yes, there are women in the bikinis,
but you know what?
To me, it's just like looking at a brick wall.
It doesn't affect me at all, Pastor Kevin.
So I'm fine to go to the beach.
You're lying.
If that's what you believe, you're a liar, okay?
You're so deceived.
You just do not understand, all right?
Let me quickly read to you from the book of Job, all right?
Job chapter one, verse number one.
You stay there in Romans 12
because we've got more to cover there,
but Job chapter one, verse number one.
When we started this Perfect Man series,
we looked at Job because it says in Job 1.1,
there was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job,
and that man was perfect and upright
and one that feared God and he shewed evil.
Man, God says, the Holy Spirit, the narrator says,
Job is perfect.
He's the perfect man.
He's upright.
He fears God.
He shews evil.
He stays away.
He tries to avoid evil as much as he can.
You say, well, maybe Job could go to the beach
and see women in their bikinis and not be bothered.
No, even though he's a perfect man,
he still had a problem.
He knows with his eyes
because later on in the book of Job,
he says in Job 31, verse one,
these are the words of Job.
He says, I made a covenant with mine eyes.
Why then should I think upon a maid?
Okay, he says, look, I don't want to think
on a woman that does not belong to me.
He said, well, I can still see and not think about it.
He says, I made a covenant with mine eyes.
He says, I need my eyes to not look on a maid
because I don't want to think about a maid.
I don't want to think about a woman who's not my own.
So I'm not going to look upon that maid.
I'm not going to set any wicked thing before mine eyes.
That's the attitude that Job had.
Because Job knows if I don't make this covenant with my eyes
and I put my eyes upon women in their bikinis,
then I'm going to start thinking about that.
That's going to start bringing in the temptations
and the lust of the flesh.
And Job, no, he's the perfect man.
He says, I'm not going to do that.
Listen, if we desire to be the perfect man, brethren,
we need to be careful what we place before our eyes.
And I know it's hard.
I know, you know, you just drive
and down in the billboard, you'll see women in the bikinis.
I know how hard it is.
But brethren, there are some things
that we just can't avoid.
But listen, where we can avoid certain things,
then you need to conform yourself of the Christ.
Hey, renew your mind and say, is this acceptable to God?
And if it's not, then do away with it.
God's going to bless you, brethren.
Okay, God's going to shine his face upon you
when he sees you being conformed after Christ,
even if it's a hard thing to do.
God will bless you.
I'd rather receive God's blessings.
Wouldn't you?
Receive the blessings of God as he sees you
striving after the Lord Jesus Christ.
Stay there in Romans 12.
I'll just quickly read you another passage.
These are the words of Jesus Christ in Luke 11, 34.
Jesus Christ says, the light of the body is the eye.
Okay, the light of the body is the eye.
What Christ is about to teach
is that this body does what the eyes look like.
Okay, and so you can't say,
I can put my eyes on whatever I want
and I won't be affected.
Okay, it's stupidity.
Jesus Christ says, the light of the body is the eye.
Therefore, when thine eye is single,
that word single means,
it's, you know, single is like an integer,
it's complete, means it's a healthy eye.
Okay, that's what he's saying.
Okay, therefore, and he's using the illustration of our eyes
and how obviously with our eyes we can see
and if we can see, we know where to walk, all right?
So he says, therefore, when the eye is single or healthy,
thy whole body is full of light,
but when thine eye is evil or harmed,
like, you know, maybe you're blind or you're cataracts,
you can't see very clearly or something,
thy body also is full of darkness, all right?
So if you've got healthy eyes, you can walk in lights.
Okay, you can be careful where you walk, right?
But if your eyes are blinded,
you're going to walk in, it's gonna be darkness.
You won't be able to see where you walk.
So Jesus Christ is using the illustration
of how our eyes work with the rest of our body.
But then he takes the spiritual truth out of this.
In verse number 35, take heed, therefore,
that the light which is in thee be not darkness.
If thy whole body therefore be full of light,
having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light,
as when the bright shine of a candle doth give thee light.
Now, Christ does tell us
that we're the light of this world.
In order for us to be the light of this world, brethren,
then we need to make sure that what is received in our eyes
is light and not darkness, all right?
If you put your eyes upon, you know, as just an example,
at the beach with the ladies in their bikinis, brethren,
it's gonna cause darkness with the rest of your body.
You're going to walk in darkness.
You're not gonna be conformed after Christ.
You'll be conformed after this world.
But if you allow your eyes to receive the light, all right,
you do that which is good, acceptable, perfect will of God,
then the rest of your body is gonna be perfect.
The rest of your body is gonna walk in light.
And so let it never be said of you
that I can put my eyes on anything
that doesn't affect me, Pastor Kevin.
There's no point of lying to me or lying to God.
You're lying to yourself.
You're deceiving yourself, all right?
So this is a key part of conforming ourselves,
renewing our mind and being careful
what our eyes look upon.
I've got a reference here that I wrote down.
I can't remember why I wrote it down.
Let me just quickly turn there.
2 Corinthians 10, verse five.
Oh yeah, 2 Corinthians 10, verse five.
We are gonna come back to Romans 12, sorry.
But Romans, sorry, 2 Corinthians 10, verse five says,
"'Casting down imaginations and every high thing
that exalts of itself against the knowledge of God
and bringing into captivity every thought
to the obedience of Christ.'"
Listen, this brain comes up with crazy imaginations.
This brain comes up with crazy thoughts,
wicked thoughts, yeah?
And God's saying, look, when you start to realize,
boy, why am I thinking about such a wicked thing?
Why am I thinking about sinful things?
As soon as we realize that,
God wants us to take that imagination,
cast it down, bring that thought into captivity,
every thought to the obedience of Christ.
Does this thought obey Christ?
That's how far God wants us to change,
to conform ourselves even in our thought life,
to change how we think, what we think.
Reverend, as soon as you start thinking
sinful, wicked thoughts, say, no,
I need to take this thought and put it into prison,
put it into captivity.
You're not gonna think on Christ.
I'm gonna think on things that are righteous,
things that are good.
So hard, isn't it, brethren?
Such a big standard.
But listen, if we wanna be perfect men,
we need to conform ourselves.
It's to change ourselves every day.
You know, after this sermon,
I hope there's something that you decide
to change about yourself.
It keeps going.
It says, and having in a readiness
to revenge all disobedience
when your obedience is fulfilled.
So we're to overcome disobedience with obedience.
That's how we take revenge on our disobedience.
And I like what verse number seven says,
do ye look on things after the outward appearance?
If any man trusts to himself that he is Christ's,
let him of himself think this again,
that as he is Christ's, even so are we Christ's.
Listen, do you belong to Christ?
Are you saved?
Amen.
All right, so you should be taking out every imagination,
every thought life,
put it into captivity and obedience of Christ,
and understand that the rest of your brethren in this church
also belong to Christ.
Meaning that you should not be so pumped up,
like so puffed up.
Well, I'm so Christ-like.
You know, every imagination, every thought that I have,
you know, I know I belong to Christ.
I know I'm serving Christ.
And then, you know, you find out
that your brother's gone out to some beach
where there's gonna be clean nakedness.
And you're like, well, I'm Christ.
Are they of Christ?
Hey, that's the wrong attitude.
We're all of Christ's, right?
We all belong to Christ.
You know, we should not compare ourselves
to other people, brethren.
And this is, I hate the most.
And again, the whole point of last week's sermon,
I appreciate your uniqueness.
Don't compare yourself to other people.
You know, you are special, you're unique,
you're created by God, brethren.
If you're serving God,
you're conforming yourself of the Christ,
you're living righteously,
and you see your brothers and sisters
not living up to your standard, don't worry about it.
Compare yourself to Christ.
Keep conforming yourself of the Christ.
That's your job.
It's their job to conform themselves after Christ.
It's not your job to make them
conform themselves after Christ.
That's up to them.
That's between them and God.
Leave that in their hands, brethren.
Doesn't matter what other people do around you.
Don't be disappointed.
You know, I'll quickly give you a quick story.
When I went to my first IFB church,
I had a DVD collection with all my favorite movies, okay?
And, you know, I got into church,
I got excited for the Lord,
and I believe I threw out all my movies.
I can't remember what I did with them, to be honest.
I'm pretty sure I threw them out, okay?
And I come to church, I'm excited.
I just want to get plugged into the things of God.
And I'm trying now, I'm trying to clean up my life,
trying to be more like Christ, amen?
And excited.
And then I find someone who is there serving in the church
and that I kind of started to look up to.
And then one random Sunday, he comes up to me and says,
oh, you know what, after church,
do you want to see the latest Terminator movie?
I'm like, what?
I'm like, I'm kind of looking up to you.
I'm getting rid of my Hollywood movies
and you're inviting me to the movies.
Now here's the thing.
Look, I initially got angry, okay?
Because I'm like, don't you appreciate what you've got?
How long have you been in a good church?
I'm just coming into this church.
I'm just trying to, you know, but here's,
I realized at that point, I realized,
okay, we're all at different stages.
We're all at different stages.
I'm not going to get angry with that brother.
I'm not going to get upset with him.
You know what?
That's a struggle that is going through right now.
And at this point in my life,
I've overcome this issue
and I'm just going to keep saving the Lord.
You know what?
I'm going to stop comparing myself to other people.
You know what?
And that's the best thing that you're going to do, right?
Stop comparing yourself to others
and compare yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And when you do that, when you compare yourself to Christ,
you'll stay humble, okay?
You'll stay humble because you realize, man,
I'm so far from that fullness of Christ.
I can't wait for his return.
But as you can't wait for his return, brethren,
continue purifying yourself,
conforming yourself after Christ.
All right, back to Romans 12, please.
Back to Romans 12.
Sorry, we took a bit of a detour there,
but back to Romans 12, verse number three.
So we finished by looking at verse number two,
which says basically to renew your mind.
This is something that we need to keep changing out
in our lives, right?
Especially if you're recently saved,
you know, you've been brainwashed by this world.
All right?
And so we need to start and wash ourselves
with the waters of God's word.
Renew in our minds.
It says in verse number three,
for I say, this is Romans 12, Romans 12, verse three.
But I say, through the grace given unto me
to every man that is among you,
not to think of himself more highly
than he ought to think, but to think soberly
according as God has dealt to every man,
the measure of faith.
Now it's important that I read this
because we saw in verse number two,
we're conforming ourselves, we're changing our minds.
We're transforming ourselves after Christ.
But in verse number three, we don't lose our uniqueness.
We don't lose our personality.
We don't lose the gifts that God has given us
that made us all different because it says,
according as God has dealt to every man,
the measure of faith.
All right?
So we're all in all our pursuits to conform after Christ.
We're still not going to be identical.
We're still not going to be alike, brethren.
Okay?
And keep that in mind, please.
Again, don't make people into you
and don't make yourself into other people.
You being more like Christ, that's it.
Conform yourself after Christ.
Okay?
We're not here to emulate or to imitate another man
because God has made us all different.
He's given us all unique abilities.
Verse number four, for we have many members in one body
and all members have not the same office.
So we being many, our one body in Christ
and everyone members, one of another.
Having then gifts, look at this,
differing according to the grace that is given to us.
We all have different gifts.
They're different.
We operate differently.
We think differently.
We function differently.
We do it because God's service is great.
We can serve God's house.
We can go soloing.
There are people that I can get saved
that you won't get saved.
And there are people that you can get saved
that I'm not going to get saved
because we're all different.
Okay?
But God wants to use each one of us
as we keep conforming ourselves after Jesus Christ.
Having them gifts different according to the grace
that is given to us, where the prophecy,
let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith.
And so conforming yourself after Christ,
once again, is not losing your uniqueness.
It's not losing your own personality.
The moment you lose your uniqueness, okay,
you are no longer conforming yourself after Christ.
You're conforming yourself after a man.
You're conforming yourself after a man's ideal.
And this is emulation.
This is imitation.
This is wicked.
And this is sinful.
All right?
Now we're going to keep reading there in a...
Let me just make sure I've got the right passage here.
Yep. Okay.
We're back in Romans eight.
Let me just make sure.
I have a feeling I might've messed something up
in my notes.
And because I can't see you guys,
I can't interact with you guys.
It's a bit hard to realize,
but let me just double check
that I've got the right references here.
You guys are in Romans 12, I believe.
Yeah. Romans 12.
Yep. Okay. I'm in the right passage.
Let's keep going there in Romans 12.
We're just going to read to the end of the chapter.
I'm not going to expand on the verses here,
but I want to show you,
I can't wait actually to go through this book,
chapter by chapter with you guys,
but I just want to show you
the rest of the chapter basically shows us
that once we conform ourselves,
once we renew our minds
and we do that, which is holy and acceptable before God,
the kind of outward changes
that this is going to make in our lives,
like how are we going to respond
once we have successfully renewed our minds after Christ?
It says in verse number seven,
"'Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering,
"'or hear that teacher from teaching,
"'or hear that exhorter from exhortation,
"'hear that giver, let him do it with simplicity,
"'hear that ruler with diligence,
"'hear that show of mercy with cheerfulness.'"
Now let's keep going.
It says, "'Let love be without dissimulation.'"
So our love's going to be true.
It's not going to be fake, all right?
Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good.
So as you keep conforming yourself,
you're going to find yourself,
you know, abhorring that which is evil.
You're going to start hating evil things,
even wicked, harmful things that you once loved.
The more you conform yourself after Christ
and renew your mind,
you're going to start hating those things, okay?
You're going to start hating the things that God hates.
You're going to cleave to that which is good.
Verse number 10,
"'Be kindly affectionate one to another
"'with brotherly love, in honor, preferring one another.'"
Is that you?
Do you prefer each other?
"'Not slothful in business, are you a hard worker?
"'Fervent in spirit, serving the Lord?
"'Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation.'"
Is that you?
During tribulation, are you patient?
"'Continuing instantly in prayer.'"
Do you just continually pray?
All right, are you just constantly going to the Lord,
seeking his face?
"'Distributing to the necessity of saints,
"'given to hospitality, bless them which persecute you,
"'bless and curse not.'"
Is that you?
Do you bless rather than curse?
"'Rejoice with them that do rejoice
"'and weep with them that weep.'"
Are you able to weep with those
that are suffering and hurtful?
"'Be of the same mind, one to one another.
"'Mind not high things, but condescend to men
"'of low estates.
"'Be not wise in your own conceits.
"'Recompense to no man, evil for evil.
"'Provide things honest in the sight of all men.
"'If it be possible, as much as life in you,
"'live peaceably with all men.'"
Is that you?
Are you known as someone that lives peaceably with all men?
Or are you someone that's always in conflict,
always in turmoil?
Verse number 19.
"'Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves,
"'but rather give place unto wrath,
"'for it is written, vengeance is mine.
"'I will repay you, saith the Lord.
"'Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him.
"'If he thirst, give him drink, for in so doing
"'thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
"'Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.'"
Is that you?
Do you overcome evil with good?
Do you do good to your enemies,
that hatred, that persecution?
You know, look, I haven't got time to go
for all of this, right, Reverend?
But listen, this list is wonderful.
It's a high standard.
It can only be achieved by renewing your mind.
And I hope as you're going through this list,
you're able to tick some of these things off
and say, yes, that's me.
Yes, I've done that.
Yes, that's me.
And then there'll be other things in that list
you'd be like, well, not yet.
Haven't reached that level yet.
Haven't reached that yet.
You know why?
Because you haven't fully come to the fulfilled level
or standard of Christ, amen?
It's not gonna happen till Christ returns.
But hey, these things are written in the scriptures
because they're attainable, right?
You know, I would love all of you
to be able to tick every verse and say,
I've gotten to that point past Kevin.
And I believe you can tick every verse that's there.
You do things perfectly that's on that list.
You've successfully renewed your mind
and you can call yourself the perfect man, okay?
So Bible gives us beautiful lists like this
that we can compare ourselves to and say,
boy, are we living up to Christ's standard or are we not?
All right, can you please go to Philippians 3?
Philippians 3, I'm near the end now.
Philippians 3.
And yet there is still a high standard
that the Lord will want us to get to.
And it's probably the most difficult one, okay?
It's easy to say, but I think in practice,
it's one of the hardest things to do.
In Philippians 3.10, these are the words of Paul.
In Philippians 3.10, he says that I may know him
and the power of his resurrection, amen.
Yeah, I wanna know Christ more.
I wanna know the power of his resurrection.
I can't wait for my own resurrection.
And then it says this,
and the fellowship of his sufferings.
Paul says, I wanna be able to fellowship.
I wanna know a little bit of what Christ suffered.
I wanna go through a little bit of the sufferings for Christ.
That's harder to do, isn't it, brethren?
To say, I'm willing to go through trouble,
to go through persecution
and to suffer a little bit like Christ, that's harder to do.
And what's even harder to do after that?
It says, being made conformable unto his death.
Are you willing to die for the name of Christ?
Are you willing to die for his kingdom?
And you say, of course I am, Pastor Kevin.
Yeah, it's easy to say, okay?
You know, it's always easy to say, you know,
but really in reality, right?
I mean, look, just as an honest person, right?
To you here, right?
I mean, if someone, you know,
if I had the opportunity to die for Christ right now,
you know what's gonna be going through my mind?
But who's gonna look after my wife?
Who's gonna look after my kids?
You know, I need to be for them, surely, Lord, right?
I mean, that's probably one of the things
that would go through my mind, okay?
So I'm just telling you, you know, yes,
it would be an honor to die for Christ.
I know God's gonna reward us with a crown of life
if we die for his name, amen?
And it's gonna be worth,
it's gonna be definitely worth having died for him, okay?
But in reality, there are still things
that I feel that I need to be here on this earth for.
And that's the challenge,
that's the difficulty for everyone, right?
Being able to willingly give your life
for the cause of Christ.
Paul was ready to do that.
But don't forget, Paul was not married.
He did not have kids, okay?
So maybe Paul was in a better state to be able to do that.
But this is where we need to get to, okay?
To get to the point where we're willing to,
yes, conform ourselves after Christ,
be more Christ-like,
but then also be willing to suffer for Christ,
even be willing to lose our life for Christ.
That's a high standard.
But then we think about how Christ gave his life for us,
yeah, and he suffered for us.
We're not even gonna come close
to the sufferings of Christ forever.
We can only taste a little bit of the suffering
that Christ went through.
And the Bible says it's an honor to suffer for him.
It's an honor to die for him, okay?
And we see even in the times of the tribulation,
when the saints are beheaded,
the Bible says they receive special thrones,
those that died during the tribulation,
that got beheaded, they get special thrones
to rule and reign with Christ.
And so there's great reward to suffer and die
for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let's keep going there in verse 11, Philippians 3.11.
"'If by any means I might attain
"'unto the resurrection of the dead,
"'not as though I had already attained,
"'either were already perfect,
"'but I follow after that I may apprehend that
"'for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
"'Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended,
"'but this one thing I do,
"'forgetting those things which are behind
"'and reaching forth unto those things which are before.'"
Then he says in verse number 14,
"'I press toward the mark for the prize
"'of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.'"
What is Paul saying in the summary
with what we're covering today?
He says, "'I'm still striving to be more like Christ.
"'I keep pressing toward that prize
"'and that mark of the standard of Jesus Christ.'"
Even though he's already gotten to the point
where he's willing to conform himself to death,
to die for Christ, he says,
"'I just continue trying to conform myself
"'after Jesus Christ.'"
So brethren, we think of Paul as the best Christian
that we can read about, yes he is.
He's probably the best Christian
that we can read about in the New Testament, okay?
Paul was a man who just had the kingdom of God
first in his mind.
He did great works for God,
he wrote many of the epistles that we have,
all the epistles, of all the New Testament epistles.
Actually, no, I shouldn't say that,
because then we have Peter and other people like that.
He wrote most of the epistles, all right, amen?
And we think of Paul as this high standard as a Christian.
And even though he says,
"'Look, I really conform myself after the death of Christ,
"'I'm still pressing toward the mark
"'of the high calling of Jesus Christ.'"
He's still trying to change.
He's still trying to better himself.
He's still trying to be more holy.
He's still trying to be more perfect after the will of God.
And so, brethren, you haven't reached it, neither have I.
Let's keep conforming ourselves,
conforming ourselves after Christ, all right?
Let's not be a cult
where we're trying to conform ourselves after a man,
after Pastor Kevin or some other man, okay?
That would be, I would hate that.
I would hate that.
I would not want to be a pastor of a church
where everyone's just trying to be like Pastor Kevin.
I'd step down as a pastor.
I'd say I failed.
Because my goal is for your eyes to be on Jesus,
not to be upon any man, okay?
And I just want to finish with Galatians 4.19.
You don't need to turn there.
This is what Paul says about the Galatian church.
Remember Paul obviously started that church,
he's serving that church, he's leading that church.
And I see Paul's heart here,
and I want you to know that this is my heart as well
for New Life Baptist Church.
But he says in Galatians 4.19,
"'My little children, of whom I travail in birth again
until Christ be formed in you.'"
Until Christ be formed in you.
So brethren, my heart for New Life Baptist Church,
for each one of you, each family, each individual,
man, woman, and child, I want to travail for you.
I want to work hard for you, right?
This is a travailing birth again.
This is not saying that he's getting them saved again
or something.
You're saved, you're once saved, always saved.
What he's saying is I'm travailing.
It's like I'm laboring, I'm trying to give birth
to someone that is formed as Christ.
You know what?
And I've said, when he started this series,
I said that the greatest joy that I have as a pastor
is seeing each person being more Christ-like,
taking on board the things they've learned from God's Word
and applying it in their lives, growing in maturity,
growing in knowledge.
Brethren, that's what I want for you.
That's what I want for our church.
"'My little children, of whom I travail in birth again
until Christ be formed in you.'"
We're trying to conform ourselves after Christ.
I'm gonna continue laboring hard.
This is my promise to you.
I'm gonna continue laboring hard in God's Word,
in teaching you the principles of the Bible,
the fundamental truths, the milk of God's Word,
and the meat of God's Word.
I'm gonna continue laboring in the Word so you can be fed,
so you can become formed like Christ every week,
every service, that's my heart.
Not conformed after this man,
because I've got problems,
not conformed after any other man,
because every other man has problems,
but conforming ourselves after Christ.
Let's pray.