We are called to leave conformity to this world and to think with God. This renews our mind,  and this moves us to help others find this way of thinking with Him. It is what the Body of Christ is all about. (Romans 12:1-2)

Speaker(s): Pastor Thomas Schaller
Sermon # 11363
7:30 PM on 11/8/2017

P. Schaller

Praise God! Halleluiah. God is good to us. One short verse.

Isaiah 64. How many have memorized the Scripture? Or meditating on it.

vs. 7. In the ministry when I grew up in it I was shocked when P. Stevens gave a message and afterwards met people and wanted to talk to us and then would instruct us. We are going to start a Bible school and have rap sessions he said. We got used to hearing a sermon and talking after and trying to stump him if we had malicious intentions. What do you think of trying to stump Dr. Stevens? He had an answer and if he didn’t, he cared about you and your edification, your faith, your encouragement. This is one of the pieces I remember. This is 40 years ago probably. What does none mean? None. No one. Say it in a different language. There isn’t anybody. There isn’t anybody that calls upon your name. People call on other things. That stirs up himself to take ahold of thee. To stir up myself. The idea of a fire burning down and the coals are there. Stir it up and get the coals. Get one thought hooked up with another and talk to yourself and counsel yourself.

Is 9:6 what is God’s name? Wonderful, Counselor. Is God a counselor? Isn’t he the first one in the counsel in heaven that counsels and Jesus counseled the Father and the Father the Son and they made plans. The Son created the universe and it came from counsel. People live without a counselor. If I don’t have God as my counselor, who is my counselor? Oh brother. Maybe it is. What do I do? I call on his name and stir up myself to take a hold of him.

Ray here, by the way in our church services I was in Kansas City last weekend with P. Sam Miles and his church. What a beautiful time we had. It was so encouraging and edifying. Ray gave me an amazing testimony. Could you share it, Ray? God is working and using this man right here. We have an incredible team. This thanksgiving we’ve started tracking the homeless. Sixty have come to church, 37 have come to Christ and 16 are dead. All 16 died within 2 weeks of accepting Christ. When he says 12 are out of the woods he doesn’t mean that as an idiom. They live in the woods off of route 40. He and his team go down into the woods into the tents there are drug addicts, unemployed, depressed, suicidal, dumpster diving to live. And Ray goes down there and brings them to this church. Isn’t that amazing? 60 have come in the past year. 37 accepted Christ and 16 have died. Imagine. Within 2 weeks of accepting Christ. It’s a tough world out there. Praise God for what you are doing.

God says there is nobody calling on my name. Nobody is stirring up himself. Talk to yourself, stir up yourself in regards to God and what God says. Praise the Lord. That’s amazing. How do you stir up yourself? How do you do it? Maybe we’ll learn about that. Go like this (he’s patting himself on the back of his shoulder). None calls on my name. Isn’t that amazing?

Romans 12, as I get older, nothing means more to me than the fact that P. Matti shares in his book the value of learning the Bible. And being in a good church where we learn the Bible and grow in our faith. We take a hold of these things and we call on his name and really trust him. I was reading his book. I couldn’t put it down. I know the people and the places he was talking about. I’m part of the story. It’s a great book. I’m so blessed by it. P. Carl in India wrote his doctrinal teaching. P. Jason Moore is a great writer. Pam Greaves and others are writing. Getting this material out there and telling our story as a Body when you find someone who has called on God’s name and God has honored and blessed them, it makes you hungry and thirsty. Could that happen to me? Could God change my life and way of thinking? Could God visit me and bless me and help me.

Numbers 11, seventy men prophesying. They have the Spirit of God on them. That’s like our fellowship. We sing like the folks here. We speak, worship. At the end we will have the Bible college students come up on stage with their photos and give out their card. We will put a magnet on their forehead on the frig and pray for them for one year.

If you go to Numbers 12 you have Miriam unhappy with her brother Moses. She gets leprosy.

Nu 13 ten spies. Then two spies have a different mind. They say we can go in and take the land now. Right away. What happened in their mind? Why was their mind different from the other ten? The other ten said no way we can take the land.

Then the rebellion of Numbers 16. Korah in 16:1-2. 250 princes, famous in the congregation. Men of renown. They gathered together against Moses. What was in their mind? The mind of Miriam, the ten spies, the two spies, the mind of Korah and 250 princes. The mind is powerful. Who is my counselor? After God put Adam and Eve in the garden who was their counselor? God was. Voice, then came another counselor. Say that with me. Another one. Another one! No! Another one. There is the mind and the counsel is wisdom. God. You take a hold of God and stir up ourselves and know God is speaking in our hearts. Then also there is another counselor. They say Moses is not good for the nation of Israel. He let us out here to die in the desert. We can’t go in and take the land. It’s filled with giants and fortresses and great armies and chariots of iron. Cannot do it. Jesus comes. He’s bad stuff. He’s bad stuff. There is a counselor. It’s not the counselor that we listen to. In our heart and mind we are studying and learning and thinking about the counsel that is the most important. And it’s yours and mine. It really is. It’s ours. God is our counselor. Why would he leave us here when we do such talking.

Joke: My wife has a problem with me. The first one I don’t listen and the second one I don’t remember. Because I don’t listen. It’s a joke Ulla gave to me!

We need each other. We are people of words. We talk a lot. We listen a lot. A lot of advice and counsel and opinions. A lot going on. A real need for us to realize God is the one who will affect my mind.

Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore. We don’t really use that word beseech very often today. Old English. Admonish, plead with you. Getting involved. The apostle Paul was around. He would want to get around. He would say I beseech you. I want you to take notice. I want to teach you something that will mean a lot to you.

Rom 12:1-2, first thing he says is our body, giving it to God. If I could give my body to God, then it shows priority. That God is important. I could give my hands, my eyes to God. He says I beseech you as a living sacrifice. He’s going to say it and it will have an effect on your whole soul and spirit.

vs. 2. What does it mean conformed to this world? Miriam said about her brother Moses, you can’t marry that woman. She’s not in our family. She’s an Ethiopian woman. Wait a minute, Miriam. Be careful. What are you saying? How do you relate to your brother? Do you know what you are saying? Spies. Ten spies say we can’t go in. Wait a minute. Do you know what you are saying? How do you know what God can do? How do you know we couldn’t go to this or that place? How do you know the city of Baltimore couldn’t be transformed by the power of God? People that would have an effect on our whole society. How do you know the U.S. couldn’t have a revival? Corporate Pentecost. How do you know that could not happen? Your mind is conformed to this world. They say it can’t happen. God doesn’t exist. I don’t care. Doesn’t make any difference. I don’t go to church anymore. Christians are hypocrites. I got hurt in the church. All of those ideas and thoughts are just conformed to the world. Believers, all of us, have the capacity to wake up and say one day I have followed God with all my heart and it’s amounted to a hill of beans. Ps 73 in my language. I have followed God.

I have gone to Bible school and in Mal 3:9 God said your words are stout against me. What do you mean? He said you have followed me in vain. You’ve done this and that and followed me and it hasn’t amounted to anything. The mind is conformed to the world. The world talks like that. The world says King Saul who died in battle, he was jealous, envious, a slanderous attacker of King David. David said oh how the mighty have fallen. Don’t talk about it to the enemies. Don’t repeat it. It’s not edifying. It’s not God’s mind. You are conformed to the world. We do it by nature. We are conformed to the world by our sin nature. I don’t see that it has had any effect on me. Paul said I beseech you. Give your body to God.

Don’t be living in the mind of unbelief and the mind of the world but vs. 2. Real change inside. I got to say to the young people who have grown up in this church, we have that time when we remember when the change on the inside was so profound that on the inside you said – you know the parable. You find the treasure in the field, remember? I found it and I go, that’s amazing. That’s so valuable. Then they bury it so no one else can get it. They sell all they have. They go buy the whole field and dig up this treasure. Then they say I got it. That’s the change that happens. When I buy the field I get the swamp, the muck, the rock, useless hill. When you get married you marry the whole field. And then you spend your life looking for the treasure. I know it’s in there somewhere. Where is it! When you come into the church, you buy the whole field and get the whole enchilada. When you find the treasure, you say it’s worth everything to me. I got my things.

vs. 2. Internally changed. What I was saying about all of us here tonight. It doesn’t matter what generation or culture we’re of. I’d like to be in step and we are. God is hitting us with the essence of what we are doing on the earth. The essence is the reality of Christ, the deliverance from our self, the transformed mind where the mind is saying I’m not against Moses. I’m for Moses. I’m not with Korah. There could be millions but I’m of another spirit…

vs. 2. Meaning we are not talking the same way. Also one of the things common with the fallen nature is I get blind regarding God. God says I can do this and we are not really listening. I’m occupied with my problem, my life. I can’t really hear him because my mind is not renewed. God is saying don’t worry about your family. I’m God. I could contest him. A renewed mind is hearing him, agreeing with him, relating to him and saying thank you God. I believe you will take care of my family in your will. I believe all things work together for good. I believe you are God. My mind regarding my problems and people is changed. Many people without a renewed mind can only see so far. They don’t see what God sees. When we look at each other we see more than what others see. Some see a skew. They can’t focus. The osn and my mind is I have a hard time controlling my thoughts. I’m sure that happens to you at times. I have a hard time concentrating. I get scattered. A renewed mind is able to focus. It’s simple and quiet. We talked about psychic noise some years ago. The people study mental health they say our body temperature is 98.6 and a fever is 103. They say psychic noise is an evidence of mental illness. Increase it and can’t see or hear only their own noise and it drives them crazy. They can’t relate to life. So under stress… Their mind is not healthy because they can’t stop their thinking. When your mind is renewed, there is the power of the Holy Spirit on your mind. You can read, listen, pray, concentrate, be quiet. We don’t have to be important or a certain way. You don’t have to be seeking or looking for something related to your sin nature. We have escaped the corruption in the world by partaking of his divine nature by the renewing of your mind.

vs. 2. ANAKAINOSIS, qualitative new renewing or renovation which makes a person different than the past.

Rom 12:2 and Titus 3:5. The person is different. Three areas. I want this to be simple tonight. I want to say because this has happened to you and me. I go back to my sin nature. That’s the point of the teaching. I gravitate back to the dust. I move in my desires or carelessness and rebellion. I lose sight of God and not really believing him. All it takes is a moment of faith. Lord, you can renew my mind. I’m walking by faith in you. The H.S. will have an influence on my mind. I will discern the difference of the counselors.

This counsel is not a good counsel Prov 1:5, 1:24. This is the divine counsel. When I get the Bible and it starts to speak to my heart and the books that relate to the Bible. I can’t help but think we need our little libraries. Rereading the good books that help us in our faith. There are some books I read and it’s a habit. I get the spaghetti and prime rib. I got my library and life in faith and I want to be stirred up and my mind renewed. Also when you obey God. You do what you want to do and you come back to God. God, I’m drawing up mud. There is nothing there. Lord says what do you think. I want you. God says no one is calling on me. Lord. Let’s go. My heart is open to you. We walk that faith and the mind is renewed. We start to believe God has something for each and every one of us and we are able to impart this to others. You have a renewed mind so you can help others in the faith. You can disciple someone or minister to them or lead them in the faith and they also become capable of discipling or leading or communicating. You’re with someone and Miriam said Moses shouldn’t marry that woman. What do you say? Many times we wouldn’t say much about it. If I’m discipling that person or I’m with that person for their good I would take issue with it. Miriam let’s be careful about it. Seek God and be Spirit filled. Be slow to speak. Be careful about the work of God. God has called your brother. The ten spies. Wait I don’t agree with you. I want to say something to you. I believe and I want you to listen. I believe it could be totally different. I believe it could happen. I want to influence you. I want to help you. I want to be part of because this is what it means. To have the involvement with others in the body. We respect privacy at the same time I was so happy I got discipled in the church. Everyone makes their own decision on what they hear. Paul is saying it is God’s business and wants the best for every one of us. One brother came to me and said I have a problem with pornography and want to be accountable to you. I have to say I might have failed him. I never really called him or checked in on him. I talked with p. Jason and he studies the subject. He was saying to me, when someone says they want to be accountable, it has to mean they are going to be accountable. They need a phone call, conversation, ministry. A renewed mind knows how bad that stuff is. It can be a support for the guy or the woman. They know also and like to get out of it. Only way you can get out is by God delivering them, renewing their mind. Pastor said it’s possible, my brother said it is, people I hang out with say it is possible. It is possible. Anything and everything can happen. Someone says I can’t share my faith. I understand that. If you learn to live with a renewed mind, you’ll share wisdom. Helping them in their faith. That’s basically soul winning. Magnifying God. Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered. Same with prayer. Get ahold of God in prayer. Late at night, during the day time. We had maybe 30 people last Friday at 6 in the morning. We had a prayer time and it was awesome. Your mind is renewed and end up talking from your heart about things people who have just come in the church don’t understand what you mean. We become legalistic. Leave me to myself and I become legalistic. The one that ministers with a renewed mind, we got so much liberty we have a good time and we have a good time and it’s not about legalism but relationship. Your mind is renewed and not conformed to the world that says it’s legalistic. That’s what unfortunately believers may say also.

You are being discipled by the pulpit but it has to be more. I am happy we are discipled by the pulpit but it has to be more. Your mind being affected in such a way when with each other reinforcing God’s mind. You’re able to help others understand what God is doing in the world. This is an easy yoke and not a hard one. As you disciple that person they get closer in understanding. They will have a renewed mind that will affect another person that they can spend time with and they can disciple.

In Kansas City I saw 700 or 600 people. It’s only 10 years old. The way it works is by people spending time with new people and caring and listening and investing in them and leading them in their thinking.

If I let a person think on their own, they won’t make it. They will just be no real change. God does this. If they could get hungry and call on God’s name, they will start to think the way J.C. thinks. They’ll say God is on the move and I’m excited and thankful for it. It happens. I think we’ll end there. I could speak a long time. It’s amazing. It’s so good.

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