The book of Romans chapter 12 here this evening. Romans chapter 12, we'll look in a couple of other places as well. Romans chapter 12, I'm going to use it as our, the mead or the springboard of our text here tonight. Romans chapter 12, verse 1 and 2, mainly verse 2. And when you find your place, stand with me if you would, and we'll read the word of God together. I've entitled this message, Follow Me. Follow Me. Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. Follow Me. Romans chapter 12 verse 1 and 2, I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Let's pray together. Father, we come to you tonight. We thank you, Lord, for your goodness. Lord, I pray that you bless the evening. Lord, it's been good already, but we just pray for your continued help tonight. Lord, I ask that you'd help me as I preach. Lord, just pray, God, you'd fill me with your spirit and Lord, just help me to be, to set aside myself. Lord, not my will and my thoughts, God, but may I just be a vessel an open vessel, God, for you and your spirit to feel. Lord, that you'd just use me tonight. Lord, I pray that those that hear your word this evening, that your word would find a lodge in place in hearts and minds, and that we'd be better equipped and changed, Lord, even in our life. Lord, you said your word would not return void, and so we pray, God, that it would go out, which you have called it to do, Lord, here this evening. Lord, I pray that you'd bless the word tonight, and just help me. And all this we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Maybe seated. There are lots of things that we can follow in the world in which we live in. The Bible tells us to, in essence, to follow Him. We live in a world that's filled with many distractions and filled with many things, temptations, many things that can kind of get us out of the way and going down the wrong path. It's essential and I think extremely important that we all understand how important it is, remember how important it is that we follow God with all of our heart because the devil will take any part of our heart that's not following God and try to use it for his honor and glory. And so what we want to do is we want to follow God with our whole hearts, wholeheartedly to follow the Lord because anything that is not following God, anything that is not on the course and going in the right direction as it should, The devil always take advantage of everything he can. Listen, even if it's something small, even if it's something that seems insignificant in life, the devil always use that to bring destruction. And so here tonight, we wanna make sure we do what we can to follow the God, follow the Lord, and follow God wholeheartedly in our life. rather than being swayed to the world and the ungodly influences that we see that are out here in the world today. We can follow the path that God has prepared for us. and set for us and it'll help us. We think about men all throughout the scriptures, ladies as well, but we look in the Bible and we think about men such as Caleb and Joshua who was willing to follow God there into the promised land, even when everybody else was disheartened and wanted to turn around and go and not serve the Lord and not do what God had asked them to do in essence, but Caleb and Joshua were two men that even that had decided, listen, well, we need to follow God and we need to go in the direction that God is calling us to. God will go on before us and God is our help. He is our strength. And these two men, Caleb and Joshua, good pictures of men who had a desire to follow God wholeheartedly. Now Caleb, his name means wholehearted. I mean, that's what his name means. His name means wholehearted. We even think about Joshua and what Joshua's name means. Joshua, his name means God is the God of deliverance or the God of salvation, in essence. And really, he kind of put them together, and what do you see? You see a wholehearted salvation, really. Hey, God's not anything half-hearted, right? God's wholehearted in everything that he does. And so, man, praise God for that. But anyhow, we see we need to follow God with all of our hearts. God was wholehearted in giving us His Son, wholehearted in our salvation and all that He does for us. The Bible says He loads us daily with benefits and so every day God gives us wholeheartedly His love, attention, service, compassion, grace, mercy that's renewed every morning. And so what we want to do is follow the Lord. How are we going to do these things? The Bible tells us, Romans chapter 12, there in verse two, notice he says, be not conformed to the world, but transformed by the renewing of your mind. And so what we wanna do is, is understand, well, really, what does conform mean? Well, if you conform to something, that means you are now being patterned after something else. There is a pattern that has been set. We're being conformed, has the idea of being shaped, has the idea of being, to be patterned after, and this is kinda pressed in a mold, so to speak. And so we look at ourselves here tonight, and you can be the best examiner of your own heart. So we look at ourselves and say, well, if I'm being impressed, I'm being molded in what image and whose image am I being impressed in? Am I being more conformed to the image of God or being more conformed to the image of the world? You would be the one, you yourself, let every man examine his own self and his own heart. You yourself would be the best judgment of yourself and maybe perhaps what you're being conformed into. I mean, the Bible does tell us, 2 Corinthians 6 verse 17, come out from among them be ye separate, saith the Lord. And so here tonight, we gotta examine ourselves and say, okay, what image am I being conformed into? What pattern am I setting? Because kind of like a cookie cutter, you know, you take or stencil, you know, you stencil something out and you cut it out, you know, and you use that over and over and over and over again as a pattern for everything that comes behind you. Or just like your bacon cookies or whatever it is you want to do for Christmas or Easter or whatever or birthday, whatever it is that you're doing, and you use a certain style and you press it down into the dough or you press it down into the battle, whatever it is that you're making, and you pattern what it is that you're pressing into to become conformed into the image of that which is pressed into it. And so if we are, we have to ask ourselves, what am I being pressed into? What image am I being conformed into tonight and as I live my life? And so the Bible says in verse 2, be not conformed to the world. Don't follow the pattern of the world. Don't be conformed into the image of the world. But the Bible tells us, as I said, to be conformed into the image of Christ. Be conformed into the image of God. And so when we look at our lives here tonight, what image are we bearing witness to? Now that which we oftentimes spend the most time around is that which we learn from and that which we oftentimes become more conformed into the image of. Many years ago, I believe this was back in 1867. Some of you may know some of the details a little bit better than I do, but there was a little boy down in India, and he was up in a cave, up in an area up there, and some guys went out, some hunters went out, and they're walking around the woods. They see this cave up there. Not sure what is up there. They approach cautiously because not sure if maybe there is an animal up in there or something like that. They are hunting. They get up there and notice there's a little boy up there, six years old. He's up there all by himself. And when they get up there, of course, they're bewildered. They don't know what's going on. And so they're trying to figure out, what's this little boy doing? This six-year-old boy, perhaps, what's this little boy doing that is up here out in the middle of the woods, up here at a cave? What's he doing up here all by himself? And they have no idea. There's no evidence of any other people being around in the area. And so what do they do? They try to speak to the little boy. The boy doesn't answer them at all. He's not speaking any language whatsoever. So they stand there and they try to point at different things and it seems like he doesn't even understand what they're talking about, doesn't understand what they're saying, has no clue what's going on. The little boy just kind of sitting there looking at them like, of course he has no idea who they are. Well then the boy starts walking around on all fours. Then he starts barking. He starts growling. Come to find out this little boy had been living in the woods up here surrounded by all they said wolves and wild dogs for his whole life up to that point six years old So what do these guys do? They take him, they bring him back to a town where there's a missionary group there. They bring him back and the mission's people there, they try to help the boy and he chews on bones, wants to eat. Said he had a desire to eat raw meat, you know, and he would act just like a dog. Never spoke, not one time. They finally trained him to walk upright, finally got him to put his own clothes on, finally got him to do all these things, but he never spoke. He died when he was 35, tuberculosis. Disney caught wind of it and they made a book called The Jungle Book based on that little boy. What I'm trying to say tonight is that we, when we're left to the world, we oftentimes begin to act just like the world. Our environment oftentimes is around us. But hey, praise God, it don't always have to be that way. There was a little girl that was left also to herself. Her parents were alcoholics and didn't care about raising her up so they left her outside with the dogs. And so she spent all of her time outside. The parents didn't take care of her, left her outside there with them and she was literally spent all of her time out there with the dogs. When they came to get the little girl because it got wet and what was happening, they came to get her and she had Now calluses all over her hands and elbows and her knees because she walked around on all fours like a dog. She barked just like a dog. But eventually, when they took her, they was able, when they sat her down and got her to a place and was able to train her and teach her to be human, she began to talk later on. Began to learn how to be a person. And she's doing successful now. She's doing great. She's living on a farm. And she has kids and is married and has a husband. But she's doing fine. What I'm trying to get us to see here tonight is that whenever we're taken out of certain situations and put in others, we become more conformed into that environment that's around us. So tonight we have to do as the Bible says, be not conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And so what we want to do tonight is say, okay God, where am I at? What am I being conformed into? What is my environment? What am I around? What am I surrounding myself around? What kind of people am I surrounding myself around? What is it that I am doing that is conforming my life every single day? And so these are extremely important to the Christian life. The Bible says that, listen, we are to come out from the world and be separate, saith the Lord, to be conformed unto the image of Christ. There was another little girl. She was real young. She was in Portugal. This is back in 1980. You can look this stuff up, find it just as easy as I did. And she was a little girl back in 1980. and she was one years old. Her parents saw that there was something wrong with her. They didn't understand what it was. So they took her to the doctor, and the doctor said, well, she looks like she maybe has some mental problems, maybe something going on in her mind, not sure what's happening there. And so what they did was, they said, well, we don't want a child like that. So they brought the girl home and put her out in the chicken coop. And that's where she lived for eight years. She ate like a chicken. flapped her little arms like she had chicken wings. She cackled, lived just like a chicken for eight years. She had very little, very little contact with any people. She lived out there in the chicken coop. Because she lived out there in the chicken coop, everybody called her, of course, they called her the chicken girl, and when people come by and they say, well, you know, you'd think somebody would go out there and help her. But they said, no, we don't want nobody like that. We don't want to raise nobody that's like that. So they just left her out there. Finally, eventually, when she was around 10 years old, somebody came and got her and tried to help her, but she had some mental problems still, but never was able to get her to where she needed to be. But they put her out there, despite her mental problems, they put her out there. And she acted like a chicken, because that was her environment. What I'm trying to get us to see tonight is our environment was spilled over into us. But it don't always, but listen, God is that one that can take us out of that environment and transform us into what God needs us to be, just like the other little girl that we lived on to have a productive life. It don't always have to be that way. Listen, we can, if we're left in some situations, yes, it could be possible that we keep on in that, but yet, but God moves into our life and despite what's going on and despite the things that we are around, we make a conscious decision to serve God and follow God, to be molded and conformed in His image, and God can do it. The Bible shows us here tonight, it says there in verse 2, be not conformed to this 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. So here tonight we think about all these different illustrations, we think about this verse, and so what is it that we need to do? First off, we understand that who we're around, what we're around, the things that we're doing is going to heavily impact our Christian life. Jeremiah chapter 10 verse 2 says this, Thus saith the Lord, learn not the ways of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of the heaven, for the nations are dismayed at them. The idea was, what God was telling his people there through the prophet Jeremiah was this, and don't learn the things of the world. Come out from among them and be separate. Don't learn the, don't get involved in the things of the world. Don't learn the things of the world. They worship the sun, the moon, and the stars. And listen, they do all these things. Don't engage yourself in the heathen worship, the heathen ways. And so as Christians, I think it's important. that we identify with God, that we identify with the Son of God, and that we don't learn the ways of the world. Listen, I think sometimes in our life, maybe perhaps one of the reasons why we don't have as much peace and comfort that we'd like to have in our life is because we spend so much time learning the things of the world. The world has such a grip, maybe perhaps on some folks. We spend so much time in the world. We spend so much time being conformed into the image of the world that we don't have the rest and the peace and all of that that we would definitely like to have. But what did the Lord Jesus say there was, I believe, in Matthew chapter 11, around verse 29, I think somewhere around in there, when the Lord Jesus says, listen, learn of me. Take my yoke upon you and learn and learn of me. And so he says, and you'll find rest unto your souls. And so tonight we ask ourselves, what are we learning? Are we learning, are we conforming ourselves more into the image of the world? Are we learning and conforming ourselves more into the image of God? Because God, the Bible says, is where you'll find rest. There's no rest out in the world, but God says, with me you'll find rest. You know, so we ask ourselves tonight. What am I being conformed into? What is the pattern that I'm setting? Because listen, the pattern you're setting for yourself. And the pattern that you're setting, the pattern that you're going by right now, you may, could just be possible that you set that pattern for others that are coming behind you. Patterns that are people that are looking at you right now. And so you decide tonight. You decide. It don't have to be up to mom and daddy. It don't have to be up to grandma and grandpa or bad environments that you've been around in your life. You can make a constant decision to change your life. Amen? And be the person that God desires for you to be. You can make a conscious decision in your life to pattern your life in a different way. And so, we look at our text here this evening, the Bible says be conformed. Don't be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And so, if we're gonna follow Christ, we're gonna follow Christ. We need to be conformed into the image of the Lord. Jesus told his followers all the time, he says, he says, follow me and learn of me. 1 Peter 2, 21, what did Jesus, what does the Bible say? He says, the Bible says, for even here unto where you called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps. And so there is a conformity, there is a transformity, there is an example, there are steps that God has called us to follow, and that is the steps of Christ. And so how are we going to do this? How are we going to follow the Lord here tonight? Well, I guess many things we can mention for sake of time. We'll mention these three. One, it's important to have a good foundation. A good foundation, a good foundation. How are we gonna follow the Lord? Have a good foundation. Number one, what's gonna set the tone for that foundation? You're gonna get saved, praise God. Listen, if you're gonna follow the Lord, first thing you gotta do is be saved, man, follow, get saved, repent of your sin, see your need of a Savior, and follow Christ, you know, get saved, give your life to Christ. Have the Holy Spirit of God live and dwell inside of you. Become a new creature in the Lord. Number one, get saved. Number two, renew your mind. The Bible tells us here in verse two, be not conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So we're going to get saved, and then we're going to do what? We're going to be conformed. We're going to be conformed. We're going to be transformed by the renewing of the mind. We're going to get saved, and then we're going to follow the examples and the steps and the pattern that God has set for us. And so we think about the things, how Christ has told us to live. We think about the things that Christ has told us to do, and all this. And so we look into the word. Does not the Bible tell us that His word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path? And so what we want to do is follow that which God is showing us in His word on how to live, to help to transform our life, and help us to every day be more conformed in his image. One, get saved. Number two, have your mind renewed. Bible study, prayer, man, walking in the spirit, being in church, being around good godly people, good godly fellowship. Listen, that's going to help to mold you. That's going to help to bring you into the person that God desires for you to be. Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord." Listen, the Bible says the way of transgressors is hard. And so when we get out there in the world and we surround ourselves with this pattern of living, and we surround ourselves with this sin, and the way that the world is going, Then listen, if you're going to follow that, then your life is going to be patterned on how the doctrine is telling you that you need to live. That you should live in this pattern. That you should do this, and you should do this, and you should do that. That yes, it's okay to have sex before you get married. Yes, it's okay to do drugs, and it's okay to drink alcohol, and it's okay to do these things and disobey your parents, and it's okay to do all that kind of stuff, because this is your life, and you just live it how you want to live it. No, that's not what the Bible says. But the world has its own way of trying to set the pattern. Listen, for all of you young people here tonight, but also, For all of us grown ones here, too. I mean, the devil's not just focusing on these young people tonight. He's looking at everybody. But man, I tell you what, if we can grab ahold of these young people and teach them to live like the devil, then we can set a pattern through them that they can set through their kids and their grandkids. Listen, I'm just trying to get us to say tonight that God is setting us that God is trying to get us to see that we need to Pattern ourselves after the image of Christ and to follow him and the very first thing we've got to do is we have a good Foundation in our life number one gets saved. How can I follow God if I'm not saved? How can I be the man or woman of God that God needs me to be if I'm not saved? and don't have the Holy Spirit of God living and dwelling inside of me, empowering me to live for Him. How can I do it? I cannot. Listen, we can strive to live off the rituals and just kind of going through the day-ins and day-outs of the ritualistic activities that we do in church life, you know. We get up, and we do this, and we get up, and we do this, and we get up, do that, do this, do that. And it's all half-hearted stuff. And listen, sometimes it's not even that. We just do it just to fulfill. We just do it just because it's something that needs to be done. No, listen, we serve God with a wholehearted heart. We serve God faithfully and devoted. And when we do this, when we do that kind of way, we live that kind of way, we become more transformed. into his image and become more like him. The Bible shows us here, listen, don't be conformed to this world. How are we gonna follow God? Have a good foundation, man, get saved. Be transformed by renewing your mind. Man, start, man, read your Bible, man, pray. Walk in the spirit. What does the Bible say? If you walk in the spirit, you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And so we walk in the spirit. Have good fellowship with good godly people and understand, number three, understand, Understand God's will. What is God's will? Number one, of course, God's will you get saved, but also that you'd seek Him and learn from Him and not the things of the world. Just like Jeremiah 10-2 says, Thus saith the Lord, learn not the ways of the heathen. So we have a good foundation. Good foundation, that's number one. Because what did the Lord Jesus say about the foundation? Matthew chapter 7. Verse 24 to 27, what did he say? He says, build your house on a rock. And if you build your house on a rock, what's gonna happen? He says, listen, the wind's gonna come, the rain's gonna come, and the flood's gonna come. And he said, and your house is not gonna fall down. But if you build your house on the sand, then what's gonna happen? Then listen, the wind's gonna come, the rain's gonna come, the flood's gonna come, and it's gonna knock your house down, completely wash it away. So what do you wanna do? Be founded upon the rock. And who is the rock? Who is the rock of ages, as the song would say, but who is our rock tonight? That is Christ. It is the Lord. Christ is our foundation. He is the chief cornerstone here this evening. He is the one that holds the weight. He is the one that leads both sides in the right direction. We need a sturdy foundation. And Christ said in Matthew 7, make sure that you have a foundation in your life. And the one that laid the foundation was not the word as the Lord Jesus said there when he taught this. He said the one that don't just hear what I say. but does what I say. If you don't just hear what I say, but you do what I say, then what does that mean? That means that you're building your house on the rock. And so there's, listen, you can have all the knowledge. Listen, you can know it. Listen, you can know it. You can preach it. Listen, you can do all these things, but unless you apply it to your life, it's not gonna help you. So, we see we need a good foundation. That's number one. Have a good foundation in your life. Foundation is the key. anything. Number two, what's the next thing? The second truth is, not only do we need a good foundation, but we need to pursue holiness in our life. Pursue holiness in our life. Listen, there's so many things, as I said, that we can learn, so many things that we can run after, so many things that we can pursue in life is pursuing holiness. One of those things, you know, there's a People are pursuing happiness. Listen, nothing wrong with trying to be happy. People are pursuing, listen, things of this world. I'm not saying that everything in the world is evil and everything in the world is wicked. I'm not saying none of those things. But what I am saying is this, is that are we pursuing God first and foremost? Did not the Lord Jesus say, did not God say in his word that seek ye first the kingdom of God? And so if we seek first the kingdom of God, he says all these things will be added unto you. We seek first the kingdom of God, we build a sturdy foundation in our life, and then what's the next thing we want to do? We want to pursue holiness, because there is so much to pursue. And I tell you what, the devil throws so much out here in the world for us to follow every single day that sometimes You know, we might start off on the right path. Listen, you start off that morning, man, you read your devotion, you're ready to go, you're fired up, and then the next thing you know, the devil done get you sidetracked on over here, and you're trying to focus on the path you're trying to get on, but the devil done threw something off on the side over here, and sometimes it's just an event, or listen, sometimes it could be a person or people, Sometimes it could be a besetting sin. Listen, whatever it could be. And you're trying to live for God and the devil just gets you all distracted over here. And the next thing you know, you've been off to the left and now you're going in your own way that seems right into a man. Or you're going in your own way knowing it's not the right way, but you enjoy what you do too much and turn to the right way. And so you keep going down a road of destruction. Is that not true? I mean, that's what happens in our life. And so we have to be careful every single day. There's so many things that becomes distractions. So many things that we pursue. Are we pursuing holiness? Pursuing holiness. Pursue holiness in life. 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 14, 16 says this. As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves to the former lust in your ignorance. Notice this is a time you were just ignorant about these things. He says, as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves to the former lust and your ignorance. Not fashioning yourselves. How many of you like fashion? How many people like fashion? People make fashion statements. Anybody like to keep up with the fashions? Some people do. Not necessarily saying there's anything wrong with all of them. But there are some we don't need to follow, amen? I mean, there are some. You can go to the mall and figure that out real quick. But anyhow, don't fashion yourself to this world. Hey, I don't have to be fashionable to this world. Let my desirous not to be. Listen, God calls us to be a peculiar people. My desire, listen, I don't have to be fashionable to the world. I don't need that. My Bible tells me, listen, what am I gonna do? I'm gonna set a good foundation. What's this foundation gonna do? It's gonna help me to pursue holiness and live a holy life. As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves to the former lust in your ignorance, but as he which hath called you is holy, so be you holy in all manner of conversation. So be holy. Pursue holiness. That is the objective. And having good foundation in your life is going to help you to do that. Pursue holiness. We live separate from the world. I've jot this down, Ephesians chapter 4, verse 22 to 24. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 22 to 24. The Bible says, that you put off concerning the former conversation. old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful us and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that just kind of what we kind of read over here in Romans chapter 12 be not conformed to the world be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And so it says in verse four, and put on the new man. This is salvation. Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. And so we see transformity. We see conformity. We see a man is transformed. We see a man is born again. And then he is pressed and shapened and created in righteousness and true holiness. And that is what we should pursue. That's because Christ is holy. Wherefore, putting away lying and speak every man's truth with his neighbor, are we not members of one another? Be you angry and sit not, let not the sun go down in your wrath. Neither give place to the devil. And so all these things that we wanna make sure that we do in our life, that we are pursuing holiness and righteousness. Having a good foundation and pursuing that which is good. So if we're gonna pursue holiness, number one, wanna live separate from the world. Number two, wanna be obedient to God's commands. Be obedient to God's commands. Did not Lord Jesus say? We talked about this I believe on Sunday. Why do you call me Lord if you do not the things I say? And so what do we want to do? We want to be obedient to his commands. Every servant has a master and our master is Christ. Obedient to God's commands. Why call you me Lord if you do not the things that I say? So we follow Christ. We follow, be obedient to what he says, obedient to how he says to live. This is pursuing holiness. As 1 Peter 2, verse 21 said that he left us an example that we should follow in his steps. You ever tried to follow when somebody else's steps before maybe is walking through the snow or walking on the beach and you've seen somebody else's tracks in the sand? You ever tried to walk in somebody else's footsteps? You're walking down, me and Bryce, we did that when we was on vacation not too long ago. Some guy, I don't know who it was, but he had a toe that was longer than Kansas. I don't know what it was. But he had a big toe and then that pointer toe was like way up here. I don't know what that was all about. Lord bless him. And then I can do a lot with a baby had a hard time finding shoes for that. Did he not bright? I mean, I was crazy one. And then anyways, and of course, all of his other ones. But we was walking. But you know, walking the snow, or you walk in the sand, you see somebody else's tracks and you say, Well, let me try to walk in their stride. And you try to walk in that and you know what you find out sometimes is that stride isn't your stride. That's right, it's not your stride. You can't walk in somebody else's shoes. You can't walk in the way that they're walking. I mean, some people, they walk in a straight line. Some people, they walk like this. You know? Sometimes it's uncomfortable to walk like other people walk. I had some, we was in Bible college one time, years ago, and we was on our way to lunch. And we was on our way to lunch, and these guys behind me, they were laughing. I turned around, I said, what y'all laughing about? And they said, we just laughing the way you walk. And I said, well, how do I walk? I don't know how I'll walk. That's fine. But listen, not everybody else's stride is for us. Not everybody else. Listen, I can't walk. Listen, you don't want to walk in everybody else's stride anyway. The Bible didn't say for us to walk in everybody else's stride. The Bible didn't say for us to walk in everybody else's footsteps. It said to walk in His. If you keep walking and try to walk in everybody else's stride and everybody else's footsteps, I don't care how godly they are, they're still sinners. We walk in His steps. We walk in His steps. And so, we have to have a good foundation. And we're going to make sure that we walk in the steps of the Lord. Pursue holiness. Pursue holiness. We've got to live separate from the world, be obedient to His commands. And then, number three, for this one, we also have to reflect God's character. We need to reflect God's character because, listen, if we have a good foundation and we're living separate from the world and we're obedient to God's commands, then hopefully, more than likely, We would be reflecting God's character, but understand this, you can know what God's character is and still not reflect it. You can know what God's character is. You can know the way, listen, you can know the rituals. You can know the right things to say. You can know how to live. You can even, listen, you can even be Pharisaical and practice it and go above and beyond it and still not reflect Christ in your life. So what I'm trying to get us to say tonight is not just about knowing, as the Lord Jesus said, and building this foundation. Let me describe to you the man Jesus said that built his house upon the foundation. Not the man that just heard what I had to say, but the man that did what I said. The man that applied, my doctrine, the man that applied these truths to his life is like a man that built his house on a rock. We gotta pursue holiness, live separate from the world, be obedient to God's command, and then reflect God's character. What is that? Walking in the spirit, as we talked about. And you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. You shall not. And so we ask ourselves, how am I walking? What pattern am I in? What direction am I heading? What foundation do I have? What am I conforming into today? Third truth is, Be a witness. Be a witness. If we're gonna follow God, how can we be a witness without following the Lord? Isn't the Lord the greatest missionary that ever lived? Did he not say, I came to seek and to save that which is lost? I mean, the Lord, he is the greatest witness there is. And so if we're gonna follow him, what do we wanna do? We wanna be a witness to other people. And how are we gonna be that witness? Well, let's see, Matthew chapter five and verse 14. to 16, says this, says, You are the light of the world, and a seed that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. So let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. So we're gonna be a witness. How are we gonna do that? We're gonna be a light. Be a light, number one. Be a light to people. Be a light to people. Be a light in the dark world. Did not Jesus say, John 8, 12, I am the light of the world, and he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Yes. And so be a light, be a light, be a witness. Listen, when we are a witness like Christ is, when we are reflecting the light of God in our life, that is great lifestyle evangelism, yes. But we want that light to shine so that people that are sitting in darkness can see truth. Because listen, your life may be the only truth that some people see. They may be in a place that is complete darkness. They may be in a place like these kids I was talking to you about earlier. that need light in their life. How would some of these people ever, how would some of these kids ever have gotten saved from where the positions that they were in had not somebody came along and helped them? Listen, how just like us, how could we have, I mean, we could, God didn't wanna leave us where we were, but yet he came to us where we were because he didn't wanna leave us where we were and he saved us, he shed his light upon us. Listen, maybe there's some people that you led to the Lord personally in your life. Maybe there's some people that you sat down beside of and discipled and were able to help bring them along from where they were to where they are now. Then praise God for those people. Praise God for you if you're one of those people that has a desire to be an effective witness. Be a light. That is how we're gonna follow God, by being a light. Listen, I tell you what, when you start being a light for God, and you have a desire in your heart to be what God wants you to be, and you have the mind of Christ, not just, not the mind of yourself, and your own self-ambitions, and your own self-will, and what you wanna do, but when we have the mind of Christ, and we die to ourselves, and we have to do it daily, but when we die to ourselves, and we have the mind of Christ, and we focus on reflecting on the character, and being what God wants us to be, we can better conform more into the image of the Lord. So, be a light. Be a light. Number two, under this, under being a witness, number two is, man, live authentic. We talked about that just a second ago. Lifestyle, evangelism. Galatians chapter one, verse 10. Man, be an authentic person. Man, live for God because God is living through you. You know, not practicing or putting on a facade, you know, for something or trying to live in a In a fake righteous way, self-righteous way, but man just live for God, be authentic. Galatians chapter 1 verse 10, love this verse. The Bible says, for do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. Think about that. He opens up in Galatians chapter 1 in verse 10 saying, Do I persuade men or God? Who is it that I'm here to please? Who is it that I'm the one that's going to answer to? Is it man or is it God? He says, I'm here to live for God. My first desire is to live for God and to be what God wants me to be. Because if I live my life trying to please men and be everything that men want me to be, then how can I be the servant of Christ? He says, so my first goal is to persuade God. My first goal is to demonstrate to God that my desire is to live for Him. And hopefully, maybe in essence, through my desire to live for Him, my light will so shine that others may glorify my God in heaven, and that they'll have a desire to live for Him too. But listen, my ultimate goal is to be pleasing to the Lord. Live authentic. You know, not to please men, but to walk with God. The Bible says that whatsoever you do, Colossians 1, chapter 3, verse, I mean, Colossians chapter 1, and I'm sorry, Colossians chapter 3, verse 17, says that whatsoever we do, whether we eat or drink, do all to the glory of God. And everything that we do, we do it for God, not for men, not for the pleasing of men, not for the pleasure of men, and not for the praise of men, but we do it because we love God and want to serve the Lord and nothing else. The Bible shows us, just live authentic. Next thing we're going to finish, desire to make an impact. If you're going to be a witness, then surely there's a desire to make an impact on the people around you. Desire to make an impact. Listen, we are confronted with people all the time in our lives. Not even in church, but all around the world. People we work with. People we rub shoulders with all the time. They listen. Maybe they don't go to church. Maybe they don't understand the things about God's Word. So what can we best do? The best thing that we can do for them is to be a light. and to be an example for them because you may be the only Jesus that they see. The light in your life may be the only light that they ever see. Because listen, there's a lot of people over here that are saying, don't study the Bible, that's a bunch of nonsense. Praying, that's a bunch of nonsense. They don't need to do that. Going to church, oh, that's a bunch of nonsense. Living for God, oh, that's a bunch of nonsense. And you're rubbing and these people that you're friends, maybe even family members, that are being told this and preached this stuff to by different things they listen to and people that they may hang around constantly, battering them with all this stuff, and then whenever you're around them, you're trying to let your light so shine, you know, and the devil's doing everything he can for them not to get to know you. The devil's doing everything he can for them not to get close to you because the devil knows that, listen, if you desire to be a light and you start getting around them, and then the truth is gonna be made known, and your light is gonna shine upon them. You're gonna reflect Christ on them. The devil don't want nothing to do with that, and so he'll do everything he can to say, oh, those Christians, man, they're so crazy. You don't want nothing to do with that kind of life, and you're up here doing everything you can to be a light. That's part of the spiritual warfare that we're in. We wanna make sure we have an impact, because listen, there's people that we're around that we're rubbing shoulders with all the time. that are battling that. You're doing everything you can to be a light. And all the things that they are learning from the world, from the heathen, Jeremiah, all the things that they're being conformed to, the world's conforming them with this idea that they don't need nothing to do with you. But we gotta make sure we make an impact. And how are we gonna do that? Well, by reflecting a light, being a light, living real, being authentic. Not pleasing men, but pleasing God. Make an impact, be willing to make an impact. I'm gonna end with these two things. I love John chapter four, the woman at the wheel. So much great stuff in there. This lady, I tell you what, she finally came around and the Lord dealt with her. The Bible tells us in verse 39 and 42, I tell you what, she became a great missionary, I tell you. She went down there to Samaria, told everybody about the Lord. I love this lady. She went down there and told everybody about the Lord I just evangelized to all of them about what Christ had done for her. And they all came to come see who Jesus was. They all came to her and to hear from Him. And they began to say, and the Bible says that many believed. And they said to themselves, now we believe, not because of what she has said, but we believe because of the words that you have said. Wow. But had it not been for her, and her impact, and her light, and her reflecting, and her willingness to go against the grain of her day. Some of those people may not have got saved. So we see the impact that she made on others. But then, of course, one of my all-time favorites, and just because I love the demonic of Gadaria, he's one of my heroes of the Bible. And I've told you many times before that he is. And I wish I knew his name. I don't. But one of these days I will, and I can't wait to sit down beside the demonic of Guderian in heaven, because he is just a great picture of a man who nobody thought could do anything. Lost, shackled in chains, filled with the devil, filled with legions of demons, running around totally humiliating himself. But yet he came to Christ, God saved him, God forgave him. The Bible says this, when he sat down before the Lord Jesus, the Bible says he was clothed in his right mind, And then he begged to follow the Lord and the Lord says, no, I don't want you to follow me. Don't come in a boat with me. I got something. I got something I want you to do. I want you to go down there to that city and I want you to tell everybody all the things I've done for you. And you know what he does? He goes down there. He tells the whole city about all these things that God has done for him. And all these people are looking at this man. that God completely changed. They're looking at the man that run around naked all over town, spent the night and dwelled up there in the tombs with all the dead, cut himself with stones, bled out all over the place, filled with a legion of demons. Nobody could control the guy. But yet Jesus steps on the scene, changes his life, does something to him that nobody in a million years ever thought could ever happen. And he goes down there, evangelizes to everybody about the goodness and the graciousness and the love of God. And then the next time Jesus came over, the Bible says the whole city came out to see him. I love it. It's such a tremendous story of a man who was on the very bottom. God raised him up. Make an impact. We're going to follow Christ. I'd like to make an impact. Let's pray. While we come to you tonight, we thank you. God, for your goodness, we are blessed people. Lord, we ask tonight that you'd help us, God, to live for you. Lord, we need, all of us need help. God, from the pulpit to the pew, down the street, down the road, and every church across America and around the globe, God, we all need help. Lord, we're just asking tonight that you'd help us this evening. Lord, I pray the message that spoke to hearts and has helped us tonight to think more about following you and how important it is, but also that we can see the steps on how to do it. When Miss Ellen gets ready to play tonight, I want to open up this altar. You think about yourself, and you think about your life, and you think about the direction that you're going, and you think about what you need. You think about what you're being conformed into, and you think about your life here this evening. And as Ellen plays, We open up this altar here this evening. Maybe you'd just like to come and say, you know, a preacher, I just want to kneel down at the altar and just say, maybe you just want to give God praise. Lord, thank you for coming to me where I was at. I was going in the wrong direction, but God, here tonight, I just want to give you praise and just thank you for saving me, saving me from the things I could have done that I never even maybe perhaps even knew I was going to do. But God, if you'd have never showed up in my life when you did, there's no telling where I would be even tonight. Lord, thank you for saving me. Thank you for forgiving me. Lord, help me tonight to be more conformed into your image, God, as I examine myself. Lord, if there's any rough edges in my life as I'm being conformed in your image, God, I pray that you would just chisel these things out of my life. And Lord, help me to fit your image the way I need to. Lord, help me to make an impact. God, help me to be a witness. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. To the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Lord, help me to make an impact. God, help me to be faithful. Help me to walk in the Spirit. Help me to have a mind of Christ, not of myself. Help me, God, to have the desire to please You and not the desire to please everything and everybody else around me. But God, first and foremost, Lord, that my desire is to please You. Lord, may everything I do tonight bring You honor and glory in my life. Help me to be impactful. Help me to be that witness. God, help me to be that person that the lost people of the world, when they see, they see the reflection of the light of Christ in my life. That's what I want to be. Whatever it is that you're praying for here tonight, I believe we come to God and we come to God with honest and sincere hearts. Knock and it shall be open. Seek and you shall find. And so we're knocking on the door tonight and we're saying God help me with this and God help me with that and I believe the Lord will help us. The Bible tells us if we judge ourselves we would be judged. It's a whole lot easier for us to let the Holy Spirit of God look inside of us and tell us and realize for ourself and ask for forgiveness than to wait on the chastening hand of the Lord. Lord, help me to be impactful. Help me to be a witness. Help me to build my life on the solid ground, the rock of Christ. Pray the message was a blessing to you. And make sure you stay safe as you go your separate ways throughout this week. Let's be dismissed in prayer. If I could, Brother Ethan, would you dismiss us tonight, please?