Amen. If you would take your Bible and turn to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. A little different crowd tonight than there was this morning. At least where I was. Amen. We had a good time in the tent with the teens and the college and career. And it was definitely different. I won't yell as loud as I did to you as I did to them. All right, we didn't have a sound system going this morning or this evening, so I kind of cried aloud and spared not. All right, but I have some help here tonight, so it's good. Amen? Amen. And so I was really thinking at the beginning when I found out I'd be preaching today both services, I thought I'd be preaching both services in the tent. And then, so I was thinking I'd have two different messages that could build on the other. And so, as we get into this passage of scripture, it'll become real. But we just thought to keep continuity and everyone on the same page, that Dad would go and preach in the tent what he preached here this morning, and then I would just come over here and preach what I preach. in the tent this morning, so it's a little different, not used to it, but we'll make it work, amen? And so Romans chapter 12, verse one, a couple of weeks ago, actually the Sunday after camp, I preached a message from Romans chapter 12. And we're going to read that passage of Scripture, but really what I'm going to do is I'm just going to focus on verse 2, and then I'm going to take one phrase out of verse 2 and just really focus on it and see what the Lord has to say, and just draw some illustrations that I trust will help us understand what God wants us to do with our lives. But it says, In Romans 12, verse 1, it says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. In verse 2, it says, And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And, you know, the last time I was able to preach here, I talked about God coming to us and begging us for something. And Paul, he was using Paul, Paul uses that word beseech, and that's very strong language. He's begging as if, you know, as a little child comes to their parent over and over, please give me what I want, you know, and they're just begging. They really want it. And this is, God coming to us and asking ourselves to present our bodies as that living sacrifice, which when we think about sacrifice, we think about something dying, but here God hasn't called us to just die physically, He's called us to present our bodies a living sacrifice. And we are to be holy, we are to be acceptable unto God, which is the most reasonable thing that we can do, which is our reasonable service. It's the most logical thing that you and I can do when we stop and we think about the mercies of God and we think how good God has been to us and how he's come to us and he's offered us salvation, he's offered us the abundant Christian life, he's offered us victory over those sins in our life, and we may not be perfect, we may not have it all together, and if we stick around each other for any length of time, we'll understand that none of us have arrived, none of us have mastered this thing called life, and especially this thing called the Christian life, which for us, there shouldn't be a difference. It should all be one and the same, the Christian life. But as we think about Romans 12, verse one and two, we looked at that last time I preached, but now we look at Romans 12, verse two, and really, I just wanna focus on this one phrase, and be not conformed to this world. and be not conformed to this world. Be not, that is a command. Be not. Here God comes to us and Paul, using the penman Paul, and he just gives us, hey, I beseech you therefore brethren, and many times we just get focused on that, hey, we're to present our bodies. We are. We are, but then he goes on and explains it, how we are to do this, how we are to be effective in the Christian life, because this is not just Paul. Let's think about it. This is not just Paul giving his opinion to a ragtag group of Christians in Rome. And that's how the world was viewing the Christian church, the followers of Jesus Christ. You look through history and you see how they were marginalized and you think how that anyone who worshiped some other deity other than the Caesars of Rome and the powers that be, they were put to death. And that's what was happening is people viewed the Christian church as misfits, as just a ragtag group of people that were you know, slinking around. And here Paul is telling them, hey, be not conformed to this world. We need to understand that this is God from heaven, almighty God from heaven coming to his church, which he purchased with his own blood. And he's saying, this is what you need to do. Sometimes we, I understand where we get this thinking, but as Christians, we need to remember who we are in Christ. We need to remember the victory that we have in Christ, because many times as Christians, it's easy to get the martyr mentality. Oh, we're just Christians. The world is just gonna beat up on us. No, we need to stand up and we need to be counted. We need to stand and we need to say, no, this is who we are, and we need to understand and walk in the truth that God has given us all the power necessary to fulfill His will for our life. All power is given unto me. And then he tells us, go, go. And that's what we need to do. We need to understand that God is coming to me and he's telling me as an individual, and be not conformed to this world. He's saying, hey, you can go and live this life and not be conformed to this world. Because what the world wants to do is the world wants to fit everyone into their mold. It's amazing if you're on social media and you see the various influencers and you see the various things that go on. It's everybody trying to be different and then everybody trying to be different. They're all the same doing the same things. And that's why you have these trends take off. And there's so many trends. I mean, every 24 hours, the next popular thing you need to post about on your timeline and you have all these different things, and it's the world trying to fit everyone into its mold. But we have a command. God comes to us this evening and he says, and be not, be not, be not, what are we to be not? And be not conformed, be not conformed to this world. What does it mean to be conformed? It means to be fashioned in the same way. to make like an external, to make like an external appearance, to reduce to a like shape or form with something else, to reduce to a likeness or correspondence in manners, opinions, or moral qualities. It means to fashion alike. That means to conform to the same pattern. It means to fashion self according to. And so, as we think about illustrations of being formed and being conformed, my mind goes back to doing a bit of construction work and a bit of concrete framing and nothing serious, just little jobs, you know, preparing little, you know, sidewalks and curbs. and just different things like that. And what would we do is we'd have to come up and we'd have to form, get a frame together, and we'd have to form that wood so that it would match the rest of the street, the rest of the sidewalk or the curb. You know, when we would do some snow clearing, sometimes the loaders, they'd get fired up and they'd get going full bore and they wouldn't lift their bucket in time and they'd smash through the curb and so every spring we'd go and we'd pick up the pieces, then we'd have to pour some new curbing along the street. And what would we do is we'd get a form together and we'd make it so that it would match the rest of the street and then we'd pour the concrete in there and so that it would look the same. It would look the same, it would look alike. And when I was growing up, I was growing up, and I'm still growing up. I'm more out than up. But what I would do is, I love baseball. I still enjoy baseball. This afternoon, I was looking through, and I saw where some guy, he pitched a no-hitter for the Cubs this afternoon. And that thing just poof. And you know what? I went and watched the highlights of the game. Because I enjoy baseball. I don't know what it was, but I grew up just watching baseball, playing baseball. And I remember going out and my parents had that old barn. The first eight to 10 feet were the old stone, field stone, and then the rest was the old wood. And there would be blocks of stone in the wall and it was very clearly marked out about two feet and the stone was right there. And so what would I do is I would go out as an eight, nine, 10 year old boy, sometimes when I was 14, I'd do it. No, maybe I did. But yeah, but around 15, I shut that down. All right, because I didn't want to look foolish. But what I would do is I would envision myself as being a major league pitcher. And so I'd walk out the 60 feet, 6 inches that a pitcher stands from the plate. And what I would do is I would envision that that little 2 by 2 block of wall on the barn, that was the strike zone. And man, what would I do is I'd chuck it, I'd pitch to the wall. All the time. And I spent hours doing it. Why? Because I loved baseball. Back in the day, I could rattle off the Toronto Blue Jays starting lineup. I could tell you about Homer Bush. I could tell you about Jose Cruz Jr. I could tell you about Carlos Delgado. He was the top prospect for the Blue Jays. I mean, he was a left-handed batter. He had an open stance. He held his bat right about there. And he would clear the upper deck in the Sky Dome. He holds the record for Puerto Rican-born players with 474 home runs for his career. I mean, I could tell you the statistics. I could tell you what position they played. I could tell you what bat they swung. Jose Cruz Jr., he was a switch hitter. I could tell you about Raul Mondesi, who got too fat as he was playing baseball, and he had to be the DH. He either grounded out or home run. Because I ate and I drank and I slept baseball. I mean, I would clear the room every Saturday morning and I told the teens all this and you can think I'm silly and they think I'm silly, but this is just who I was. This is what I did. And I was talking to Brother Gus. He says, yeah, when I was a kid, he said, I still have a, a notebook where he would go and he would practice his signatures as an NHL player. He was practicing signing autographs. I didn't do that. I was just practicing baseball. And every Saturday morning, I would go and we had our chores. Before we could watch anything on TV, we had to get our chores done. So what would I do is, you know, I had the family room, that's where the TV, VCR was, and so I could not clean. And anyone who does any cleaning, know that you cannot clean in a room that is full of people. Amen? You can try. All right? And so what do you do? You kick all the siblings out. You say, this is what I'm doing. I need to clean. You need to get out and leave the remote there. All right? Because I knew that right about 12 noon is when Fox Saturday baseball would come on. And you know, as a 8, 9, 10 year old boy, I would get, I would clean up and then no one was in the room and I'd have control of that remote. And for the next three hours, alright, I would watch baseball. It was usually the St. Louis Cardinals. It was what it was, all right? Not a big deal, but it still was baseball. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. And then I would get to about the sixth or seventh inning, and then what I would do as a kid, I'd go out there and then I would hit baseballs. I'd go and I would mimic what I saw on TV. I would try and take their form. I would try and, you know, if there was a superstar playing that day, man, that's where my mind went. And I would try and bat like he would. I would try and stand. I'd try and have the same batting stance. And that's what I did. I tried to fit his form. And so when we think about the Christian life and we think about this command that God gives us, it's just a very simple command, but how many times do we see the simple things in Scripture and they don't really sink down and become a part of us? And it says here in verse two, and be not conformed to this world and be not conformed to this world. And one thing as the children of God, we are called to be different. We are called to be a peculiar people. We are called to not fit into the world's mold because the world has a mold. The world has a form that they want you to fit in. And if we're not careful, we are going to be careless in our life. We are gonna be careless in our church. And before we know it, all of a sudden we're gonna be worldly. We're gonna fit the mold, not of Christ. We're not gonna be conformed to the image of Christ, but we will find ourselves being conformed, fitting the mold, following the pattern of the world. and we will not be victorious. And so as a Christian who has grown up in church, one of the hardest things that you and I will face is not being conformed to the world. I'll tell you what, there's so much pressure for us to be, just slide right in behind the world and be in the same mentality, the same thinking, the same form. There's so much pressure. Satan is going to do everything in his power to negate and silence your witness for Christ. Satan is gonna do whatever he can to get you thinking wrong, and if our thinking is wrong, our actions will be wrong, and it will be no different than this corrupt world. And so in the service, in this service, this protected environment, and this is a protected environment, Stop and think about Pima Valley Baptist Church. When we come here, this is a place that is for, I would say most of us, this is a place of refuge, a place where we can come and a place where we can sit back and we can take a deep breath and say, it's good to be in the house of the Lord. This is a place of refuge. And for me, as a preacher's kid growing up, this is the only church I've known. This is the only church I've been a part of. And I'm thankful for it. You think about all the other churches that I could be at and a part of, this is the only one I've known and God is blessed here. And God is blessing here. And you think about all the places that you and I could be, we're in Winkler, Manitoba, Canada. I got one amen. This is about as close to heaven as we can. No, some of you are thinking that right now. All right. But I mean, for all its faults and failures, it's still a pretty good place to live. God has been good to us. And we may, if we're not careful, we'll take a careless approach to our life. We'll take a careless approach to God's work. And before you know it, in our carelessness, we're fitting the mold and we're getting right in tune with the world. And we have to be careful. And so for this evening service, I'm gonna ask you to consider one thing, one thing tonight. And sometimes we just, if you're like me, we're used to just scrolling through our feeds on social media, and we get those one minute videos, or we get those 30 second videos, or we read the meme that comes through the family chat, and we're used to just reading something real quick, and then it just goes on. And then our mind is on somewhere, something else. And if we're not careful, we won't take the word of God and we won't take it in its entirety and we won't let it, we won't stop and we won't think and we won't meditate and we won't let it become a part of us. And we're ignorant of the scriptures. But I'm gonna ask you to consider one thing and I'm just gonna drive this home this evening in the time that we have left. I'm gonna ask you to consider the world. I'm gonna ask you to consider the world. The Bible tells us in Romans 12, verse two, it says, and be not conformed to this world. Why is it so important that we be not conformed to this world? I'm not talking about creation. All right, I'm not talking about when you walk out in Pimina Valley and you oversee the Pimina Valley and you see all the trees and especially now, all the colors are, the trees are changing and it's just a beautiful time of year. I'm not talking about that creation. I'm not talking about God's creation. I'm not talking about when you go to Lake Minnewasta and you oversee the picturesque setting there on Lake Minnewasta. All right, tongue-in-cheek there. I'm not talking about that creation. I'm talking about the world, the system of the world. Let's go to 1 John 2, verse 15. 1 John 2, verse 15, and here's a command that is given to us by God through His servant. 1 John 2 verse 15, it says, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, we're gonna look at it, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And so this evening, I want us to consider the world. I want us to consider the system of the world, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. And so for our first example, I could come up and I could give you example after example. I could read you news article after news article and just see what the system of the world does, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And I could give you all that, but the Bible is very clear. The Bible gives us more examples than we need, really. And so let's go to 2 Samuel chapter 11. 2 Samuel chapter 11. a very well-known passage of Scripture. And I'm not in any way trying to lift up sin, but I think we should consider it, because we take sin lightly, and there's a deceitfulness about sin that comes into our hearts and our minds, and it can infiltrate us, and it can get us to think that sin is not that bad. My mind also goes to the psalm, and I forget it off the top of my head. But it might be Ecclesiastes now that I'm thinking about it. Because judgment is not executed on sinners, we have the tendency, and I'm definitely paraphrasing here, we have the tendency to think that people get away with sin. And sin is always judged. Sin is always judged. And so we need to consider this. And I don't wanna put undue emphasis on sin at all, but we need to consider it. And we need to consider the system that the world has in place, that Satan has in place. And so the lust of the flesh, we need to be careful of the flesh. We need to be careful of this body. This body causes us a lot of trouble. It doesn't matter who you are, how old you are. Someone asked a well-known preacher who was well into his 80s, and a younger preacher walked up to him and said, you know, when do you have victory over the flesh? When was the time that you found that victory over the flesh? And he said, I don't. I still battle it every day. And as Christians, we're going to battle the flesh every day. It doesn't matter where we are, our station in life, we are going to battle the flesh. And a graphic illustration of this is in 2 Samuel 11, verse 1, and it says, And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem, and it came to pass in an even tide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house. And from the roof he saw a woman washing herself, and the woman was very beautiful to look upon. And David sent and inquired after the woman, and one said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah, the Hittite, and David sent messengers and took her, and she came in unto him, and he lay with her, for she was purified from her uncleanness, and she returned unto her house. And the woman conceived, and sent, and told David, and said, I am with child." Let's go to verse 27. It says, and when the morning, and we all know the account here, how that David put in plan, a plan in place to call Uriah back. And when Uriah didn't fall, go according to the plan that David had set in place, then he had Uriah killed. And here we pick up reading in verse 27. And when the morning was passed, David sent and fetched her to his house and she became his wife and bear him a son. but the thing that David had done displeased the Lord." This displeased the Lord. What do we see here? We see a graphic illustration of David letting his flesh control him. If we're not careful, we're gonna get careless and we're gonna get thinking that, you know what, I can do what I want. I've been good for so long. It's not that big a deal. And it is a big deal. The lust of the flesh was not a pleasant experience for David. If we go to 2 Samuel chapter 12, just keep on reading, it says, And the Lord sent Nathan unto David, and he came unto him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city, and one rich, and the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up, and it grew up together with him and with his children, and it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter. And there came a traveler unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock, and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him, but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him. And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man. And he said to Nathan, as the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die and he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity. In verse seven, and Nathan said to David, thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul. And I gave thee thy master's house and thy master's wives unto thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD to do evil in his sight, that hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon? And so we see here a graphic illustration of the lust of the flesh. the lust of the flesh. If we go to verse 16, it says, And David therefore besought God for the child. And David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth. And the elders of his house arose and went to him to raise him up from the earth. But he would not, neither did he eat bread with them, And it came to pass on the seventh day that the child died, and the servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead. For they said, Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spake unto him, and he would not hearken unto our voice. How will he then vex himself if we tell him that the child is dead? But when David saw that his servants whispered, David perceived that the child was dead. Therefore David said unto his servants, is the child dead? And they said, he is dead. The lust of the flesh is never a good thing. It will never end well. Satan, the world, and even our depraved flesh, it doesn't show us the harvest that comes from a life of sin. It doesn't show us that. I want you to consider the world, the lust of the flesh. I want you to consider the lust of the eyes. Let's go to Joshua chapter seven. Joshua chapter seven. Joshua 7, verse 1, But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing. For Achan the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zeri, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing, and the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel. If we go to verse 10 it says, And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up therefore, wherefore liest thou upon thy face? Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them. For they have taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen and dissembled it also, and they have put it even among their own stuff. If we drop down to verse 19, and Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him, and tell me now what thou hast done. Hide it not from me. And Achan answered Joshua and said, Indeed, I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and thus, and thus have I done, when I saw among the spoils of a goodly Babylonish garment, and 200 shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of 50 shekels weight. Then I coveted them, and took them, and behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it. And we see the lust of the eyes came, and it got aching, Achan had just come through, and man, he was right there with the children of Israel, walking around the walls of Jericho, and he took all that in, and then as soon as that victory came and the walls came down, what do we find him doing? He's going in there, and all of a sudden, something catches his eye. And as Christians, we need to be careful of the lust of the flesh, because the world is, they're gonna put a lot of things in our way. A lot of things are going to come our way that if we're not careful, the lust of the eyes and that lust of the flesh is going to rear up and it can get us distracted and it can sidetrack us. If you would go to 1 Kings chapter 21, we won't take the time, but it's about King Ahab and Naboth and Jezebel and how King Ahab saw a good vineyard and he wanted that vineyard. And he said, hey, I wanna buy that vineyard. It looks good to me and I want it. And Naboth said, no, that's my father's inheritance. I'm not gonna sell my inheritance, my father's inheritance. I'm not gonna sell that to you. And Ahab got upset and he got pouty and he got all bent out of shape. And then Jezebel put in a dastardly plan to have false accusers come, and they falsely accused Naboth, and what do we find? We find that he was judged, and the lie took root, and they took Naboth out, and they destroyed him. They stoned him to death. They killed him. They killed him. Why? Because one man had the lust of the eyes. The lust of the eyes. We need to be on guard. And we need to be careful about the pride of life. The pride of life. We have the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And so what is this? The pride of life, this is a selfishness, this is self-confidence, a boasting attitude. If we go to 2 Peter 2, verse 7 and 8, we'll take the time and we'll look at this one. 2 Peter 2, 2 Peter 2, verse 7 and 8, it says, And delivered We'll begin reading in verse six. And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly. In verse seven, and delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked. For that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. And we see the pride of life got lot. Lot, he grew up and he started looking at the things that the world had to offer, and he didn't consult God, and he really didn't care what God or his uncle had to say, and we see that the pride of life, I'm gonna figure it out, and you can imagine the draw for power when he began to become a mover and shaker in the cities of Sodom, Gomorrah, and then he was there at the gate, and it was the pride of life he hadn't made. People would come to him for counsel. but it was vexing his righteous soul day to day. And sadly, many Christians and really many young people, their lives are vexed. They're living their life in frustration because they're going according to the lust of their flesh, the lust of their eyes and the pride of life. They're trying to do it all. in their own strength, and they think they have it figured out, and how many times we think we have it figured out, and we go about our day, and we go about our week, and we go about a month, and we go about our years, and we're just vexed, we're frustrated, we're not fulfilled, and God comes to us and says, hey, you need to submit, you need to trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding, and in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths, And we just refuse that. We refuse. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. And we don't meditate. We don't delight in the law of the Lord. We don't meditate in the law of the Lord. And we don't delight in that. And we're not like trees planted by the rivers of water. We don't bring forth fruit. Because we're trying to do it ourself. We're trying to go according to our own reasoning. We're trying to go according to the reasoning of the world. And so this is the pride of life, and it brings frustration, it brings destruction into our lives. And let's go to Judges chapter 16. Judges chapter 16, one thing that helps me is if I start listing the books of the Bible. Joshua, Judges, then I know where to go. Amen. You think I'm joking? I'm not. Judges chapter 16 verse 19. Probably you think of someone who had the blessing of God, and he did have the blessing of God, but he could never overcome the flesh. He always thought he could take care of it. And that's the man Joshua, or Samson, there we go. Joshua, it all ran together there. But in verse 19, it says, and she made him sleep upon her knees. This is Delilah. And she called for a man and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head, and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him, but the Philistines took him and put out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with fetters of brass. And he did grind in the prison house. But here, Samson, who had everything going for him, he had the power of God on his life, but yet he could not overcome the flesh. He could not overcome the pride of life, that self-confidence that he had. And sometimes we, God blesses our life and we think it's all that we've done. And if we're not careful, God can take the hand of blessing off of us, and we can go on and try and move forward as in other times, and we wish not that God was departed from us. The blessings of God was departed. And when we think about such a man that God had used, and you think about how his eyes were poked out, and the Philistines, man, they were not a gentle people. Putting it lightly. I mean, you think about getting your eyes plucked out. Here it was, Samson who had tormented them and had really just been a pain in their side for this whole time. And they think about all the soldiers, Philistine soldiers that he had killed. They weren't gentle with him. It was not an easy time for Samson. to not only get bound, he'd never had to deal with that. He'd never had to deal with that. He'd never had to deal with his eyes being plucked out. And then they let him, mocking him into their temple, and then they got him grinding the grain like women would do in their society. It wasn't a pleasant experience. It wasn't a pleasant experience. And one thing we have to understand is for David, the lust of the flesh, it was not a pleasant experience. Psalm 51 is a blessing for us and it gives us hope, but that is a time of deep distress in the life of David. It wasn't a pleasant time. You think about the world, you think about Lot's life, it wasn't a pleasant experience. Judges, Samson, it wasn't a pleasant experience. So I ask you this evening again, consider the world. As we go about our life and we think, excuse me, we think about Romans chapter 12, verse two, and be not conformed to this world. Are you fitting the mold of the world? Are we fitting the mold of the world? When people look at us, do they see us being conformed into the image of Christ? Or do they see us being conformed to the image of this world? What do they see in your life? What do they see in my life? When they talk to us, what do they hear? Do they hear Christ or do they hear the world? We need to be careful and we need to take some inventory. Consider the world, it is never satisfied. The world is never satisfied. The lust of the flesh is never satisfied. The lust of the eyes is never satisfied. The pride of life is never satisfied. The world will never meet your needs. The world, the flesh, and the devil only show you the pleasure in the sin. You watch the alcohol, the beer commercials and the alcohol commercials, and they never show you the end result. They never do. You even hear the advertisements on radio, they make it sound so good, but they never show you the end result. They never show you that one time I was coming home when we lived in Morton there, And just down the road, it was in the middle of January or December, I believe it was, it was like minus 20 something outside. They never show you the emergency crews that had the street blocked off. And there was a man who had been partying, and he had been drinking, and he had given his life over to booze and drugs. And he had He had just been on a bender that night and he jumped on his bike and on the ice in the road, he didn't, he slipped and he hit his head in the middle of the road and he passed out there in the road. And I was, my coworker who was driving his truck at the time down the road, didn't see him in time and ended up having him pinned under his truck between the road, the bike, and the truck, and he dragged him for 20 to 30 feet, and his face was scraping along the pavement there. The world doesn't show you that in their beer commercials. The world doesn't show you that. The world doesn't tell you that that same man was rushed to hospital, and because he had so much alcohol in his system, they couldn't perform surgery because his blood was so thin. The world doesn't show us that. But God does. After I preached this to the morning service under the tent, someone walked up to me and said, you know, the world doesn't show us, but our gracious God shows us the end result of sin. We need to consider it. We need to just stop and we need to think, Lord, thank you. Thank you for giving us the victory. Thank you that, you know, if I was to not be conformed to this world, but I can be transformed. I don't have to follow the ways of the world. I don't have to follow my flesh. I don't have to follow what the world tells me I need to do to fit in. The world never shows us this. The world at the beginning never shows you the end of the season. The world doesn't show you the turmoil that goes on in the life of people who follow their flesh. If we go to John chapter 15, John chapter 15, and I'm almost done. John chapter 15. John 15. Verse 18, it says, The world hate you. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own. But because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. I messed that verse up, I'll read it again. Verse 19, if you were of the world, the world would love his own, but because he are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. We need to understand that the world is not our friend. The world hates us. And I don't say that in a way that, let's go do battle with the world. That's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying the world system is not your friend. We have to be careful of the deceitfulness of sin in our life. The deceitfulness that comes with living a life according to flesh. We can come to church and we can live according to the flesh. We can come to a service like this and still have the pride of life, a prideful self-confidence in our flesh. But we need to understand that the world is not our friend, and we need to stand. We need to stand. Let's go to Daniel chapter 3. Daniel chapter 3, last passage of Scripture. It says in verse 15, now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made well. But if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of the burning fiery furnace, and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. And we all know the account how that God delivered them out of the fiery furnace. They were willing to stand. You think about the pressure that these young men were under. Not only were they foreigners, they were slaves in this land, but their life was about to be taken from them. And think about us as Christians. how that we have the pressures of the world, we have the pressure of Satan in our life, we have the pressure of our own flesh, but what we need to do is we need to trust in God, and we need to start walking according to the word of God. And Lord willing, I'll be able to add the second part to this message, but I just wanted us to consider the world. And we need to stand, and we need to not be conformed to this world. The world is not our friend. Let's stand. Like these young Hebrew boys, they stood, they said, hey, we're gonna trust God no matter what happens. We're not gonna give in. And you think about the own pressure that was going on in their heart and mind. And you think about what we give into. with our flesh and our eyes and our pride of life. You think about what we give into, and yet these men, when they were facing death, they stood. They stood. Hey, let's not be conformed to this world. Let's not fit into the mold of the world. We are called to be different, peculiar people. And how are we to not be conformed to this world? We're to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. But let's make sure, let's ask ourselves this evening, hey, do I fit the image of God? Do I, do I, am I fitting more in line with God and his word? Or does my life match up more with the world? The world system, is my thinking right? Am I thinking in light of scripture or am I thinking according to the wisdom of this world? We need to ask ourselves that. We need to ask ourselves, are we conformed to the image of this world? Let's all stand with our heads bowed and our eyes closed. Message is very simple. Are you conformed to this world? We're commanded not to be. We think about the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. What are you living according to? As Christians, as Bible believers, we need to be living according to principles of the word of God. But what, where do you line up? Are you conformed into the image of Christ, or are you conformed to this world?