Before we begin our study, let's ask the Lord's blessing upon our worship in the Word. Let's pray. Father, we praise You that You are worthy of our worship and our adoration. You are worthy of this time, setting our mind on things above and not on things of the earth. We ask You, Father, as we open Your Word, cast our care upon You. We do know that You care for us. Help us, Father, that the meditations of our heart would be in accordance with truth. That Your Spirit would take the truth of Your Word, applying it to our heart and change us. We want to be more like our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is our greatest goal and admiration is to represent Him clearly in a way that can be seen. Father, use us this morning to draw near to Yourself. May You be honored and may You do a work in our lives that only could come from You. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen. We're in Mark 3. Just a brief comparison between Satan and Jesus. Just start the process in your own mind of thinking through the difference between Satan and Jesus. One is holy. The other, corrupt, wicked, and evil. One is good. The other, not so much. Right? Not so good. Evil. Terrible. One is kind and long-suffering. divisive, one who would rather tear us down than build us up. But I want to focus in on one contrast between Jesus and Satan. One is self-will and the other is deferring to the will of the Father. We remember the Lord Jesus time and time again making a very clear statement. My will is to do the will of Him who sent me. My meat is to finish His work. To finish the course. Constantly, we hear Jesus making reference that He was all about doing the will of the Father to the point that we see Him in the garden. We reference this regularly. As Jesus, the man, is yearning against the struggle inside, and He says, If there be another way. If you can take this cup from me. If there's a different plan. Let it be done. But, we know how he closes his prayer three times. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. It's all about doing the will of the Father. Then we think about Satan, and whose will is he concerned about? His own. Self-will. self-will. And why do I bring this contrast up? I think we have to come to very basic conclusions about our thinking. Until we come to basic conclusions, we're really just kind of circling, constantly being abstract. When we can get to concrete terms, it really helps us to see where we stand. I can either be self-willed, exemplifying satanic tendencies, Or I can be dominated by the will of the Father and exhibit Christ-likeness. When we take a moment and consider how basic the two choices are for a believer in Jesus Christ, of course, we never want to consider ourselves Satanic and Satan-like, but rather always want to be finding ourselves to be Christ-like. And one of the ways that we can determine whether we're Christ-like or Satanic is, where is our will? Do I have a self-will? Or is my chief concern the will of Him who sent me?" The typical person does not comprehend the pursuit of the will of God. The typical person is self-willed. They have all their basic ideas of what they want to achieve in this life. They have them all outlined and thought out. Many people have at least attempted to select their own career. They have passions and objectives determined by their own interests. And I want for us to really crystallize this in our minds as we look at Mark chapter 3 just for a moment. Take a look at verse 31 and following. Mark chapter 3, beginning in verse 31. We started this passage last week. God's Word says, then his brothers and his mother came and standing outside, they sent to him, calling him. And a multitude was sitting around him and they said to him, look, your mother and your brothers are outside seeking you. But he answered them saying, who is my mother or my brothers? And he looked around in a circle at those who sat about him and said, here are my mother and my brothers. for whosoever or whoever does the will of God is my brother and my sister and my mother." The very interesting circumstance where Jesus' physical family is outside knocking on the door. Hey, we want to see Jesus because we have determined, earlier in the context, He is out of His mind. He's gone crazy. He thinks He's something unique. And He's just a human like us. That's really essentially what they're saying. He's not even taking time to eat. He's constantly thronged by people. And Jesus, His response is very interesting. Who's my mother? Who are my brothers? And who does He look at? Those that are right around Him. What are they doing? What are those that are around Him doing? Well, let me ask a follow-up question to answer it. What is Jesus always doing wherever He goes? He's always preaching and teaching. Everywhere He goes. He's healing people, but He's preaching and teaching. He's casting out demons, but he's preaching and teaching. The character of Jesus' ministry was constantly instructing people in the truth of who God is and the plan of God. That was all He did everywhere He went. So those that were around Him that He said, these are my brothers, these are my sisters, these are my mothers, these are the ones. They're sitting there listening to Him preaching and teaching. They're ones that sit at His feet much like Mary as opposed to Martha. And so we've been discussing this concept. Those that genuinely are rightly related to Christ, genuinely rightly related to Him, are those who seek the will of the Father. Those who seek the will of God. And so in determining how we can identify where we stand, we've been looking through the New Testament at various passages. And we've really found ourselves honing in on one very familiar passage. Romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2. A passage we've memorized, a passage we've meditated on, a passage I've preached on. You've heard preaching on this verse from numerous people. But it is at the heart of a person that seeks to do the will of God. I invite you to turn back there please to Romans chapter 12. Who are the ones who are rightly related to Christ? Who are the ones He's not ashamed to call His brothers, His sister, His mother? Those that seek to do the will of God. Last week, we looked at one character trait of the believer who is pursuing the will of God. One of them. And it was found in Romans 12 and verse 1. God's Word says this, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is what? Your reasonable service or your logical worship. It's only logical, having recognized how great God is. It is only logical, having recognized how much He loves us, it is only logical seeing our desperate need as sinners that Christ came into the world to save. sinners of whom I am chief. The recognition that God is the one who takes us from a broken vessel and turns us into something glorious through the sanctification process in the book of Romans. That God is the one who never forsakes His people. God is the one who fulfills His promises. We see that. These are the mercies of God mentioned throughout the book of Romans. And it's based upon the mercies of God that it is only logical for me to surrender my will. That was our first character trait of one who seeks the will of God is a surrender of the will. It is recognizing that it's not about me. My life is not about me. This world is not about me. This church is not about me. My family is not about me. Nothing, nothing is about me. It's all about Christ. It's all, only, always about Christ. That's the way it is. Surrendering my will is saying, Lord, here I am, a saved vessel, someone that you've pulled out of the fire and placed into the kingdom of your beloved Son. Use me. I'll do whatever you want. I'll go wherever you want me to go. I'll say whatever you want me to say. I will take it on the chin anytime you want me to take it on the chin. In other words, I'll take the beaten. I'll take the subjection. I'll take the challenge. Because my life is not about me. That really is what Paul is saying when he says, present yourselves as living sacrifices. Present your body as living sacrifice. We can't present our body without presenting our mind, right? So it all starts right here between the two temples. That cranium, that brain that He's placed in there saying, Lord, my will, my desire, I want it to be Yours. I'm really thankful that God doesn't leave that process completely up to me. I'm very thankful He gives us an understanding that it's Him that does that too. You remember that great passage in Philippians chapter 2 and verse 12 where he says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. He tells us how that happens, you know. The very next verse tells us. He says, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. It's not even My responsibility to figure out how to surrender my will. My responsibility is to recognize how great God is and to say, OK, Lord, here I am. You change me. I'm willing to be changed. I am willing to have you take my whole being. inside and out to make it exactly what you intend. It's God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. My responsibility is to place at the disposal of God who I am. He gives us some characteristics of it. It's continual, a living sacrifice. It is pure. He calls it holy. It is acceptable or God's approval. It's acceptable to God. And it's logical. It's our reasonable service. So we move on from that first step in the process of pursuing God's will, the surrender of the will, to a second very important concept and that is separate from the world. He says in chapter 12 in verse 2, and do not be conformed to the world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Separate from the world. What does that mean? The word there Do not be conformed. Do not be conformed to the world is to fashion oneself according to something. Here's a good definition. Listen carefully to what this word conformed means. To conform oneself to another's pattern. To conform oneself to another's pattern. I find it very interesting the way that God phrases this for us through the Apostle Paul. He doesn't say, change yourself. He says, don't take on that which is not naturally yours. To conform is actually to grab something, like a coat, and to put it on. I'm taking on me something that isn't mine. That is the concept here. That's a good way to get my coat off. That is the process. is what's normal as we're observing the world about us is to start to adopt their principles, their practices, and their ways. And God says, don't put on what is not naturally yours. Do not conform to someone else's standard. Why is separation so important to God? Why is separation from the world such an important ingredient in pursuing the will of God? And pursuing the will of God is important to our being rightly related to Christ, right? The ones that are my brothers and sisters and my mother, they're the ones that do the will of God. Separation from the world is important to God because if we don't separate from the world, we're demonstrating where our allegiance lies. Listen to what God says in other places. In 1 John 2, verse 15. You know this verse. God says, do not love the world or the things that are in the world. For if anyone loves the world, the love, listen, the love of the Father is what? Not in Him. Does God find this to be an important concept? Separation from the world In God's mind, which is the only mind that really matters, is of chief importance. Because if we love the world, we don't love Him. We don't have the love of God in us. How about this one? This one maybe even startles us a bit. In James 4, verse 4. Ready? Do you not know that friendship with the world is what? Enmity with God. What does enmity mean? War. There's an all-out war. I can either choose to cling to the principles, practices, and pursuits of the world and be friends with the world, or I can cling to and follow the pursuits, practices, and passions of God and cling to God. I cannot have it both ways. God has made it utterly clear. It's kind of like how we were talking earlier. Here's how Christ is. Here's how Satan is. They are diametrically opposed. They are opponents. They are at enmity. Well, so also is the one who clings to the world is at enmity with God. The one who clings to God, really, on the converse, is at enmity with the world. Well, sure, those are big terms. But really, they're still a bit on the abstract side, aren't they? What is the world? What is this world that I need to separate from? Is it, you know, I can't be near the planet? None of us are supermen, so we can't jump and fly all the time. We have to be near it. We're on terra firma. We still were surrounded by an atmosphere. We can't get out of it. It's not as if we have to find some metaphysical location somewhere we can go beyond. He's not talking about some weird concept. He's saying we need to make sure that we are not conforming ourselves to the mindset of the world, the pursuits of the world. What is the mindset of the world? We've talked about this in the past, and I think this is very important for us as believers. The mindset of the world is I'm number one. I'm important. I am important. And if you do X, Y, or Z to me, I'm not going to be your buddy anymore. I'm not your friend. It is self-will. It's the self-importance. It's pride. It's not my fault. Don't blame me. I can never take any personal responsibility for anything. It really is the environment that I grew up. Don't you know that it takes a village to raise children? You may have heard of that before. The former president's wife made that concept popular. It's really the public school. We all have to contribute to make sure that our children become good and right. God's word tells me that it's really the family's responsible to do that. first and foremost, then there are other influences that come in. The mindset of keeping up with the Joneses, right? I've got to have this thing. Everyone else has a big screen TV, I've got to have one. Everyone else has a newer vehicle that doesn't break down, I've got to have one of those. Everyone else dresses this way, I've got to have that. Those are some things that we've talked about in the past. I wanted to add a few things to our thoughts and what separation in the world is. God says separate from the world or don't be conformed to the world. And we have to figure out what exactly that means. And I just try to propose some things, not just to tell you what I think about it, but maybe to get your mind spinning a little bit as well. It is our responsibility individually, as well as a corporate body, to be considering what it is that God is telling us to avoid. One mindset of the world that I think is very important for us to avoid is an unwillingness to surrender to one source of authority. I know, it's a little challenging. Surrendering to one source of authority. The world says, essentially, hey, that's true for you, that's fine. You can worship how you want to, that's for you. If it's good for you, if it works for you, that's fine. It's not for me. I don't have to believe that. Those people over there, they can think what they want to. It's alright. As long as it works for them, it's good. But I have my own thing. And what I do works for me. You know what that is? That's telling us that there's no established truth. You realize there is established truth? Of course you do. That's why we're here. That's why we open our Bibles when we come in. We don't just have theoretical discussions. God's Word is established truth. And because God's Word is established truth, when it proclaims something, I say, yes, Lord. Not, maybe I'll do that, maybe I won't. There is an established truth. That's not the way it is in the world. The world says, you have your thing, you can follow it. Technically speaking, it's called post-modernism. Post-modernism. If it's good, if it works, it's fine. You can call it pragmatism. It's a practical thing. As long as it works, you can do it. We were talking about this in Sunday school. God's will, God's overarching purpose in all of human history is His own glory. We believe that wholeheartedly. Some people believe that the overarching theme in history is the salvation of souls. And because they think that, they will try to save people's souls no matter what it takes. They will violate scripture to do it. They will go against their own theology to convince someone or manipulate someone into salvation. But because we believe in established truth and that God's glory is the overarching theme of history, we say, OK, Lord, I'm going to do what you've called me to do, and in the process, I will be telling others the gospel of Christ. People will be saved, but they're going to be saved your way, not because I've learned some really slick tactic that is going to convince them. God's Word always is what works. Worldliness is seen in our language. You know that? We can talk like the world, or we can talk differently than the world. We can adopt their same slang terms, some of which may be okay, but most of which not so much, right? We can adopt their practice of using Jesus' name inappropriately, very easily, just letting God roll off the tongue in a kind of a cursing way or a shocking way as opposed to a prayer or talking about who He is. These are ways that we can adopt worldliness. How about our pursuits? I've mentioned that a number of times. What is your ultimate goal? What is your ultimate goal in life? What are you trying to accomplish? Maybe you can't answer that so quickly. I'll give you a way to evaluate it. Just think. about the last week of your life? What did you spend the most time doing? What did you spend the most of your free time doing. Free, I mean, you don't have to during your 45, 50 hours of work. After work and before work, those free times where you have to make decisions. I'm gonna spend this time after work is over doing X, Y, or Z. What are your pursuits? It'll tell you what your pursuits are. If it has to do with everything about you, it tells you that you are a selfish person. If it has to do with ways in which you are worshipping God, it tells you that you are a reverent person. If it has to do with serving others, you are a service. All you have to do is evaluate what you spend your free time doing, and it will tell you about your pursuits in life. Our appearance. We can either look and dress and do our hair and everything like the world, or we can do it different than the world. It's really a choice we make. We can either mirror everything, the next fad that comes out. All of us have two eyes, I think, a nose, a mouth, ears, hands. We're all going to have similar features to the world. I'm not asking you to paint some special sign on your forehead so you can say, I don't look like the world now. I'm saying, are we looking at what the next fad is that comes out? So that we can make sure that we mirror it in our design, in the way we hold our hair, the way that we paint our face, the piercings we have on our body. Are we following after our worldly pursuit? Or are we just kind of, we do our hair because we have to make sure we look presentable when we're going? Our appearance. How about child training? We can rear our children according to Biblical truth, or we can rear our children in accordance with the world. The latest book that comes out. This isn't my time, but some of your time. Dr. Spock's book comes out. He told us, is that what his name was? I don't remember his name. I always think of the guy, you know, Dr. Spock. The child-rearing Dr. Spock, right? That guy, his book comes out and everyone's adapting the process, right? Because this is the way to do it? Is that where we get our information about how to bring our children up? Is it the latest psychological study or sociological study that we figure out, okay, now I know how to raise my children. No, it's not a worldly position. How about our entertainment? Worldliness is seen and focused on self. It's my feelings and my desires. Worldliness is seen in our pride. You know what's interesting? I find this very interesting because you know, you've had people call you this before. People have called you a legalist or a Pharisee before. I'm sure they have. They say, oh, you're like way too serious about all that God stuff. You know what I find interesting? Most people think that biblical oriented Christians are the most judgmental people in the world. They really do. They think that we are the most judgmental. But what I have come to understand as I just observe like truth, there is more scoffing that comes from worldly people that think it's weird that we don't want to conform to the world than I've ever heard about Christians scoffing at unbelievers for the way they live. I find it very interesting. People that don't want to adopt biblical standards look down at people that do. Isn't that funny? And yet, Christians are called the judgmental ones. I've heard it stated and it's a true thing. Anyone that has a higher standard than mine is called a legalist. That's just the way it goes. But really, what is our ultimate desire? Our desire is to look at what God's Word has to say. We're talking about worldliness. Not conforming to the world. We cannot have all the same interests, styles, music, entertainment as the world and think we're being distinctively Christian. We cannot do every single thing that everyone else does and think, well, I'm OK. I'm not following the world. The Bible tells us not to conform to the things of the world. F.F. Bruce made this great statement. Listen carefully to this. He says, worldliness does not reside in things. But it does reside in our concentration on things. If our affections, instead of being set on what is of permanent importance, are set on passing things that the heart desires and the eye delights in, or on things that encourage us to have a good conceit of ourselves, we are fearfully impoverished. Ready? If my reputation or my public image matters more to me than the glory of God or the well-being of my fellows, the pretentiousness or the pride of life has become the object of my idol worship. He basically just says this, when I am focused on the same things that everyone else is, self, that I'm worldly. What motivates me to dress or talk or do the things I do? What is your motivation? Because motivation is far more important. Motivation is equally important to actions, right? We can do all the right things, for the wrong reasons, which is kind of where we transition to the positive element of what separation is. Athanasius made this statement one time. Athanasius was a historical figure who was an opponent of Arius. Arius denied the deity of Christ. And as Athanasius and Arius would go back and forth. It was kind of making for challenges in the government. And so Theodosius, the emperor of the time, called Athanasius in. And he demanded him to stop his opposition of Arius. Stop trying to oppose him saying that Jesus isn't God. That's a good idea. And he made this statement. Do you realize that all the world is against you? Do you know what Athanasius' response was? than I am against all the world." What was it that motivated Athanasius to make that statement? I think this is the forgotten part of a discussion on separation. Separation isn't just the negatives. Don't do this. Get away from that. Don't adopt this. Don't filter your mind through this. That's the negative side. What's the positive side of separation? The positive side of separation is, I want my mind to be filtered around something of infinite value. I want to look unto Christ. I want to be dedicated unto Christ. I want to see who He is, what He's like, what He does, what He says, how He responds to things. Separation is being separated unto something, not just separated away from something. The positive side of separation is what What we see when we look at Christ, the motivation in being separate from the world is the motivation to be Christ-like. God tells us this in Hebrews 7.26. Listen to this statement. In Hebrews 7, God is establishing the truth that Jesus is a special and unique High Priest. And it says this, For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. I want to be like Him. If I'm going to be like Him, I need to be holy, harmless, undefiled, and what? Separate from sinners. Now let me ask you what it means to be separate from sinners. Did Jesus avoid sinners? Or did He go toward them? Answer? Class? He always went toward them, right? He went where they were. He was always out in the public. And he saw sinners, and he dealt with sinners. So what does it mean that he's separate from sinners? He didn't say, sorry, I can't spend any time with you. You're a sinner. He would be by himself all the time. That wasn't the point. Separate from sinners means he doesn't adopt their practices. He didn't do what they did. He went where they were, which is why people would accuse him of being a wine-vibber and a glutton. You remember that in the Gospels? Oh, he's a winebibber and a glutton because he hangs out with sinners. Well, Jesus being separate from sinners would be near them. He just wasn't partaking of what they were partaking in. He was separate from sinners, but he was still in their presence. Separation from the world has to mean separation unto God if it's going to mean anything. Separating from the world just to separate from the world doesn't accomplish anything. It's really another hypocritical, pharisaical practice. Really what we look for is to be like Christ. And if I adopt His thinking, His mindset, His ways, His language, His practices, you know what we're automatically going to do? We're going to forsake worldliness. It will happen Automatically. So, really, we could have avoided about 15 minutes of our discussion this morning if we would just simply be passionate for Christ. It's the only thing that will ever change your lives. Turning off the TV? That will not change your life. Turning off the radio? Will not change your life. Not looking at the fashion magazine? Will not change your life. You know what will change your life? Looking at Jesus. Looking at Christ. Looking at the Saviour of our souls. The Head of the church. The Master of our destiny. The Great High Priest who dwells in the heavens. Ever living to make intercession for us. As we look at Him, our lives change. But if we don't ever evaluate our thinking, If we don't ever evaluate our practices, we can think we're considering and concentrating on Christ while just kind of mingling the two together. And you know what mingling truth and error accomplishes? Error. You will always come out with errant theology when you mix it with error. So we have to be careful. Our greatest pursuit must be Christ. But we also have to evaluate and look at ourselves. What practices am I adopting that don't match up? Because He's holy, harmless, and separate from sinners. Are you more concerned about earthly success or heavenly? Does your heart skip a beat more when you think of some material possession that might be yours? Or does your heart skip a beat when you think about heaven? Laying up treasure in heaven. Our passion must be there. Well, this passage doesn't just talk about surrendering our will and separating from the world. It also talks about something else that is vitally important to this whole process. It's called saturation with the Word. Saturation with the Word. Look at verse 2 again. He says, And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed, say it, by the renewing of your minds. by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. He tells us the process whereby we will not conform to the world and will be changed. The term there, transformed, is the Greek term metamorphoto, which means to change completely. And the great illustration that everyone will always use when talking about this metamorphosis is what? It's the caterpillar that goes into the chrysalis that eventually breaks out as a what? What's the similarity between a caterpillar and a butterfly? Not much. Maybe the main trunk of that being might be similar. But there's not much that's the same between a caterpillar and a butterfly. There's a complete difference. How does that transformation take place? Take a look with me at 2 Corinthians chapter 3. By the renewing of your mind, The renewing of your mind. What does that mean? How do we have our minds renewed? How does that transformation take place? I love looking at a contrast between James 1.25 and 2 Corinthians 3. In James 1, he's talking about being doers of the Word and not hearers only, right? And he says, he that continues, continues in the perfect law of liberty, his life changes. Because he's not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work. That man will be blessed in his deed. That's James 1.25. He continues in the Word. Not just, yeah, I come to church, I get my little dose of Bible stuff, and then I go on my way. It's a constant pursuit. It's a constant meditation upon the truth of God's Word. Here in 2 Corinthians 3, he begins in verse 17 with this context. The context of 2 Corinthians 3 is the glorious new revelation. The old revelation, the Old Testament, the law under Moses was glorious. So glorious that Moses' face was shining when he received the revelation. But eventually, his face faded. The new covenant, the new testament that's been revealed has come forth in greater glory. And he says at the end of that in verse 17 and 18, here's why it's so great. In verse 17, Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory, to glory. How? Just as by the Spirit of the Lord. He's talking about the New Revelation, the New Testament, what God has given us to understand as church age living doctrine. And the way we are going to be transformed is as we look into that perfect law of liberty, as we behold in a mirror, as we look into God's Word, what we're seeing is Christ And when we see the reflection come back, we say, I don't look like that. But as we keep looking, as we keep meditating, as we keep our face humbled before the Lord, as we keep our perspective willing to change, the Spirit of God takes the Word of God and He conforms us into the Son of God by our image. We have come from glory, one form of glory, one stage of glory, to another stage of glory. There we have what's called, theologically, progressive, taking steps, sanctification, being made holy or like Christ. And how does it happen? What are the key components here in verses 17 and 18? The Word of God, the Spirit of God, and us looking into it. So it takes three people. Three parties. The Word, the Spirit, and the believer. Looking. We're renewed by the Spirit of our minds. We're renewed in our minds. How often does this take place? Well, the Bible tells us it's a day-by-day battle. It's a day-by-day process. in 2 Corinthians 4, in verse 16. Listen to what God says to us through the Apostle Paul. He says, therefore, do not lose heart. We do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. We know that verse. It encourages our soul. Because we see all the challenges that face us every day. And the only way we make it is as we allow God to renew our spirit, renew our mind through His Word. I really love what the psalmist says. It helps us with this very practice. In Psalm 119.97, the psalmist writes, Oh, how I love thy law. It is my meditation. How long? All the day. It is my meditation. all the day, not just every day. It's all the day. It is a constant working in our lives. And so we looked at the surrender of the will. We say, Lord, I am yours. We looked at separation from the world, but really it's a separation unto Christ that's primarily our focus. How is that going to take place? It's by the transformation of our minds, which comes through the saturation of the Word. So what's the saturation point? You've got the old crusty sponge that was used once and it's kind of like hard as a rock. You can't do anything with it, but you put the water in it and it fills up and it gets heavier and more pliable. And you can use it. You can do something with that. What I really want to be personally, and what I really would love to call all of us to be, is people that are so saturated with the Word that when someone squeezes us, when a circumstance squeezes us, when something puts pressure on us, what's oozing out is the Word. It will not happen without intention. We do not grow without biblically motivated, grace-motivated intention. We have to intend to move. We have to intend to grow. I want to share with you a great little paragraph by D.A. Carson. I'd say maybe he would consider it a poem. It's entitled, People Do Not Drift Toward Holiness. People do not drift toward holiness. Listen to what he said. People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance. We drift toward disobedience. and call it freedom. We drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation. We slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism. We slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated. Listen, I've seen many a person with this attitude. Oh, I used to be so bound up when there were all these restrictions. And I think that that's probably true. Because God's Word is not a bunch of restrictions. It really is not. God's Word says, I will reveal my truth. If you will follow the truth, it will do what? Set you free. But the same people that used to be bound up by legalism, the pendulum swings. And they don't stop somewhere in the middle. They just keep right on drifting over here. And they turn up. Oh, I'm so free. I don't have any restrictions. I don't have any restraints. I don't need to go to church. I don't need to worry about what I watch, what I listen to, where I go, what I do. It's all fine. I've been liberated. Yeah. Yeah, you have been liberated from truth. You've been liberated from truth. Liberation from truth, you know what that also equals? Bondage to a lie. So you went from bondage to bondage. What have you accomplished? Not good. Whatever it is, it doesn't matter what it is. It's not good. Somewhere between the two extremes lies the truth. And it's called a wholehearted pursuit after Christ. Saturation with the Word. Now, I want to, just in closing, Let you know of what Luke said about the same account. Now, you know that Matthew, Mark and Luke, they write about many of the same accounts and they give a little different perspective. And sometimes they quote Jesus a little bit different. I really like what Luke says in quoting the same thing that we were looking at at the beginning of our time. Remember, he that does the will of God is my brother, sister and mother. Listen to what Luke said in Luke 8.21. My mother and my brothers are these. who hear the Word and do it. You want to do the will of God? You want to be the brother of Christ? Being a brother of Christ is as simple as trusting Christ as our Savior, right? But being rightly related to Him may be a little bit different than that. Just because I've been born again doesn't mean I'm rightly walking with Him. You want to be rightly walking with Him where we have a great relationship? knows the Word of God, hears the Word of God, meditates on the Word of God, and does it. I want that to be me. And I want that to be you. Brother or sister in Christ, what has your focus been? Who has your focus been? Are you laying up treasures on earth? Laying up treasure in heaven? Is your pursuit the same as everyone else's down the street? Or is your pursuit one that exemplifies and illustrates who Christ is? It will tell you about your relationship with Christ, whether it's one that's on solid footing in a right, glorious relationship that is a blessing to you, or whether it's just kind of one of those pieces of our lives. I believe God. I trust God. I'm a follower of Jesus. But it's not what dominates my life. I'm not that serious. I won't let it dominate me or anything like that. It's not that big of a deal. You know what? One of these days, it's all going to be over. It will. Everything's going to be over. We will stand before Jesus. There's only going to be one thing that matters to you. Because there's only going to be one thing that matters to Him. How passionate were you for me before you got here? Everyone's passionate when they see His eyes. The passion might be one of shame or one of rejoicing that's available. But the passion we have now for Him is what's really telling. Let's pray together. Father, help us. We seek to follow You with all our hearts and all our minds. Give us clarity about ourselves. Help us to know whether we are self-willed or more concerned about the will of God, Your will. Reveal that to us, that we might know whether we've truly surrendered our will, separated from the world, and have been saturated with Your truth. May we be growing. Help us, Father, to set aside those things which challenge us, and to focus our attention and our admiration upon you alone. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.