Mike Bickle emphasizes the transformative power of renewing our minds as outlined in Romans 12:1-2, urging believers to present themselves as living sacrifices to God. He highlights five critical truths that empower individuals to overcome despair and cultivate healthy kingdom relationships, linking these truths to the mercy of God. Bickle reassures that despite our weaknesses, our offerings are holy and pleasing to God, and that His will is good, pleasing, and perfect. He encourages believers to reject worldly standards and instead evaluate their lives through the lens of God's mercy, fostering confidence in their relationship with Him. Ultimately, Bickle calls for a mindset shift that aligns with God's perspective, leading to emotional and spiritual transformation.

Verse 1 and 2 is one of the most well-known passages in the New Testament. It's referred to often. It's a very practical passage and it's very significant in terms of equipping people to overcome despair. And you might read those two verses and say, overcome despair? Where's that? Well, I think that we'll point that out as we unpack these verses. Paul is equipping people to overcome despair and empowering their hearts so they can walk out healthy kingdom relationships. Because the rest of chapter 12 is about kingdom relationships. Matter of fact, the rest of Romans, the next four chapters, is all about kingdom relationships. Paul introduces that empowering, that motivation, that ability to have godly friendships and relationships in the marriage, in the home. He links it in to verse 1 and 2. So it's a very important passage for pastors. Those of you that care for other folks. I don't mean the title of pastor, but if that's your function. I want to highlight five truths that Paul highlighted in these two verses. These are five truths that if engaged with, we can overcome discouragement and despair and that feeling of aimlessness and hopelessness that the enemy attacks so many godly people with. But I want you to know that these five truths, as significant as they are, the enemy has a strategic plan to undermine each one of those truths in the lives of God's people. He comes with lies. It's called the accuser. He obscures these truths. Now when you read it at a quick read, you might not even catch the significance of them. But each one of these five words represent truths that I'm going to point them out as we go through it. It's like a gold mine. They're gold nuggets. It's a wealth of meaning behind each one of these five phrases. Let's read Romans 12, verse 1 and 2. Paul said, I beseech you. Therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. They're holy and they're pleasing to God. They're acceptable. Many Bible translations put the word pleasing instead of acceptable. It's an interchangeable word. He said, this is your reasonable service. This is your logical response to the mercy of God. Verse 2, don't be conformed to this world, but rather be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That you would prove or you would experience what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God in your life. Let's read through it again. I just wanted you to become familiar with it. We're going to read through and make a couple of brief comments, and then we'll look at the notes and develop a few of the phrases in a little more detail. I want to highlight these five truths as I read it again. Remember, each one of these truths, the devil has a plan to blur and undermine these truths. As a pastor, as a discipler, as a mom and dad with your children, these five truths are critical that they're clear in the minds of those that you're shepherding or caring for or pouring yourself into. Note them and be equipped in your leadership by paying attention to these five truths in your ministry to others. Let's read it again. He goes, I beseech you. Paul says, this is of the utmost importance. I'm pleading with you to get these truths. He says, I beseech you, therefore, by the mercies of God. But therefore is pointing back to the 11 chapters. We're in Romans 12. Romans 1 to 11, 11 chapters, Paul outlines the grace of God and the mercy of God in a very detailed, systematic way. He goes, in light of what I've just told you for 11 chapters, he goes, by the mercy of God, I'm appealing to you to respond to the mercy of God with extravagance. Give yourself fully to the God who was so merciful to you. But he's saying more than that. He goes, evaluate your life through the lens of mercy. Present yourself to God through the lens of his mercy, and therefore you'll have confidence. Even in your weakness, you'll have confidence that the Lord is delighting in the relationship. You'll have confidence of the Lord's pleasure in the relationship with you, even as you're presenting yourself to him, and you see your weaknesses and your flaws and your failures in the way you present yourself to God. See, the enemy comes along, and we present ourselves to God, but we're so aware of the flaws and the weaknesses, and the enemy highlights those and says, you're a hypocrite, you're a fake, doesn't matter anyway. God doesn't even, he's not pleased with any of this. And Paul says it's exactly opposite. He goes, present yourself to God, but through the lens of mercy. Have the confidence each step of the way. The Lord sees and interprets your life through who he is, as the God who delights in mercy. He says, here's what he wants you to do. He wants you to present your body, a living sacrifice. That idea of living sacrifice, there's a costly, extravagant giving of yourself to God. God wants you to give yourself to him in an extravagant way. Now here's the truth number one I want to highlight. He goes, that giving of yourself is holy. Say, in what sense is it holy? We'll develop that in a moment, but that's truth number one. The enemy wants you to think that that giving of yourself is a failure and a fake. Doesn't matter. Paul says, truth number two, that giving of yourself, even though you're weak, it's pleasing to God. Matters to him. It moves him. The devil comes along and says, it doesn't move him. He didn't even see it. He didn't care that you're giving yourself to him. Matter of fact, he's angry at the way you're doing it. Paul says in verse two, don't be conformed to the world. And that conformity to the world has three or four significant applications. I'm only going to highlight one. But only one of about four. In this context, Paul is saying, I don't want you to evaluate your life by world standards. That's only one application of that phrase, don't be conformed to the world. Don't evaluate your life by man's values and man's standards. Evaluate your life by the mercy of God. It's a very important thing, because many believers, though they believe the word of God, they're living before God, they evaluate their life in the way many evaluate them, and then they conclude their life is worthless and small and makes no impact, and it doesn't matter, and they just want to give up and give in. Paul says, don't conform yourself. Don't use that value system. Again, I want to stress, that's only one application of this phrase. Don't be conformed to the world. But he says, but be renewed. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Did you know our emotions are transformed by changing our mind? Our emotions and our behavior is changed, is transformed when we change the way we think. And Paul is saying right now, I want to challenge you to line up, change the way you think about the way you offer yourself to God. Because if you don't see what God sees when He looks at you, you'll give up and give in in despair. You'll say, what use is it anyway? My offering is so little, it's so weak, it's so flawed, it really doesn't even matter. Paul says, no, no, agree with God. Renew your mind. Say what God says about you. The renewing of your mind is the same principle as having a spirit of faith. Renewing your mind and having faith is exactly the same concept. He says, here's what you're going to prove in your life. Here's what you're going to experience. The place of the word prove put experience. Here's what you're going to find true. It's going to be proven true in your life. That the will of God is good. The will of God is pleasing to you. And that the will of God is perfect. Now this phrase, the will of God is a big phrase. Paul's talking about the fact that God has a master plan for your life. Instead of will of God, put master plan. The master plan of God for your life. Or another phrase you could put, the destiny. God's destiny for your life. Your destiny in God. You could put that instead of the phrase, the will of God. So Paul says, let me tell you. Not only is your offering of yourself holy and acceptable. We're going to develop those phrases because they mean more than what meets the eye. Those are the first two truths. He goes, I want to tell you three more truths. The master plan for God's, the master plan of God for your life, the will of God for your life actually is good. You will find it's good. The devil tells you it's bad. But I'm telling you the will of God, the plan of God is good and it's fruitful. You'll see God sees the fruit more than even you do. Number, the next thing he says, the will of God is pleasing. Some people have the idea if they really obey God, though the circumstances can be difficult at times, I mean really difficult and challenging, there is a pleasure. The way that God tailor made you from your mother's womb, he designs a master plan for your life that fits exactly who you are. And he says, you will have pleasure in the interaction with me even though the circumstances can be hard at various seasons. The enemy comes and says, if you obey God you'll be miserable, you'll be bitter, you'll be burnt out. And the Paul comes along and says, that's not true. You'll find it pleasing. You'll find there will be a pleasure dimension in your interaction with the Lord. And I look back over the years and I can identify some difficult seasons, but in that I look back and I remember there was a sweetness in my interaction with the Lord. That even in the plan of God, even in the difficult circumstances, there is a pleasure, there is something that's pleasing. Not just pleasing to God, actually pleasing to the way God designed you and formed you in your mother's womb. He gave you a plan, an assignment, a destiny that fits with how he made you. Then he goes on and says, the will of God is perfect. The leadership of Jesus over your life, not only has Jesus thought through all the details, he didn't forget anything, didn't overlook anything. He's committed to powerfully and skillfully intervene to lead your life. And you go, well, I don't see that much intervention. And we'll break that down in a few moments. But Paul goes, I promise you, the leadership is perfect. The devil tells you, the Lord's forgotten you, he's ignored you, he's not involved in you, your life is aimless, your offering is meaningless, you're a hypocrite, it's not worth the effort anyway. Paul says, your offering is holy, acceptable, the plan of God is good for you, it will enrich your life, it will be pleasing to you, not leaving you burnt out and bitter, and the leadership of Jesus over your life is actually perfect. The enemy will contest all five of those truths over and over again. These are five truths that as I look back over my life over the years, they have been life-saving. They're the difference between when difficulty and despair hits my heart in temptation of overcoming it and having a note of victory in my heart in the midst of difficulty. It comes down to these five truths. So don't look at the Word and say, well, I'm familiar with the Word, you know, holy, acceptable, pleasing, I think I got it. The enemy goes, good, as long as you think you got it and you stay obscured, it never becomes clear, then I'll always keep you off balance. But these are five points that Paul highlights. Let's look at a few of them, but just take two or three minutes on each one of these. What Paul is really saying, give yourself to God wholeheartedly, it's worth it, you'll see. Trust the leadership of Jesus, his leadership is excellent, you'll see, it will be proved out. Though you can't always measure it, right now, it will be proved out as true. That's what Paul is saying here. Well, let's look at paragraph B. First, Paul starts off and he goes, I beseech you by the mercy of God. Now, the mercy of God, he applies it two different ways. He says, if you understand the mercy of God, it will motivate you by gratitude to give your all. If you really understand the first 11 chapters of Romans, the way Paul systematically laid out the mercy of God, Paul says, if you get what I just told you, you will be motivated with gratitude. That the God who extravagantly gave himself to you, the God who gave you extravagant riches of glory, when you see that extravagance in the mercy he gave you, it will motivate you to respond in extravagance. When you want to be more passionate for Jesus, study his passion for you. That's what Paul says. That's how he's applying it first, by the mercy of God. When you see it, you will say, I want to give myself fully to a God who gives himself fully to me like this. But the mercy of God has a second application. We offer ourself. We're not just motivated to give our all because of the extravagant mercy he gave us, but when we give our all, we become aware of the weakness and the flaws, the imperfection in the giving of ourself to him. I mean, we sign up with zeal. I want to love you with all my heart. I want to give you all of my strength. But the walking out of it, we look back and go, oh, my humility is deficient. My diligence is flawed. My faith is not mature. I'm not really giving it to you the way I thought I wanted to. Oh, I don't know, and the enemy comes and says, here's what the enemy does. He highlights how much we've come short and tells you you're a hypocrite, you're a hopeless failure, doesn't matter anyway. But the Holy Spirit says, yeah, you haven't attained this level of breakthrough yet, but look at the level of breakthrough you have right now. A lot of believers are locked into what they don't experience, and they lose sight of what they do experience. For instance, you really love Jesus. You know the majority of the human race doesn't love Jesus. You really do. Where'd that come from? That's not the devil or the flesh. That's the work of God in you. You really care that you're coming up short. The majority of the earth doesn't care they're disobeying God. When you come up short in an area, you go, ah, where's that from? Paul says, don't you see God's working in you? Those are evidences of the leadership of God in your life. The very fact you care, the very fact that you hunger, the very fact you're longing with pain for more is all evidences. He's moving in you. It's not the work of your flesh that you have those desires. You've come a long way in those areas. Don't just see what you don't have a breakthrough in. See the measure you do have a breakthrough in and say, thank you. Have confidence. Let your confidence be bolstered. Beloved, by His mercy, God actually not just accepts us in the legal sense of He accepts us, He enjoys the relationship. Though there's areas of our life that He's correcting, that He's displeased with. There could be an area of your life He's displeased with, but He enjoys you and the relationship. Just like an earthly parent can see an area in their children's life they weren't corrected, they're not happy with, but they love the child, they love the relationship. Beloved, He delights in you. He delights in mercy. One of the things the Lord, I think, enjoys the most is mercy. He loves to give mercy. It says in Micah 7.18, I love Him loving to give me mercy. This really works. Psalm 103, David said, He came before the Lord, he goes, He knows the human frame. He remembers we're dust. He remembers it. We lose sight of it and we imagine there's these super saints somewhere that is walking in this level of full breakthrough and consistency that their love is totally mature. Their faith is completely unwavering. Their diligence is never, ever flawed. They're walking in this way and we go, wow. Beloved, there are no super saints. They're people that are of flesh. We're weak. Though we're shocked sometimes when we come up short. He isn't. I love the song. He knew what he was getting into when he called your name. He remembers that we're dust. He knows your frame. He gets and he understands who we are and our frame. And we're trying to give ourselves more. We want our mature, our responses to be more mature. They come up short and the enemy exploits that. It's called the accuser and the liar. And he wants us to give up and give in. He wants us to focus on the breakthrough we don't have instead of the measure that we do have with a gratitude that bolsters our confidence that we enjoy the relationship with the Lord while we're seeking for the greater breakthrough. I mean what other king, what other sovereign, if you gave yourself to any other king, any other sovereign in the nations, in the way you gave yourself to the Lord, I mean our giving, our offering to the Lord, our diligence is flawed, our humility is flawed, our love is flawed, it's weak, but it's sincere, beloved, and weak love is not false. Our love for Jesus is real though it's weak. Weak love is not false. It's still genuine. I mean what other king could I go to and offer the devotion I give to the Lord and him go, I want it. He might say look at all the holes, but I tell you the sovereign, the king of kings, he delights in mercy. And Paul said it's by the mercy of God that you present yourself. Stand in the confidence of mercy. You lose sight of that, you'll lose motivation to keep offering yourself. You'll lose the zeal to keep pressing in when you lose sight that he evaluates you through the lens of his own mercy. Paragraph C. Now this request is remarkable to me. He says present your body to God as a living sacrifice. This is remarkable. The God that has everything still seeks for something he doesn't have. How does the God that possesses everything still seek for something? Beloved, he's after your heart. He won't take it by force. It says the eyes of the Lord, they search over the earth for a loyal heart. He has everything, but he still wants something else. He wants your heart. He wants you to give your body to him in an extravagant spirit of obedience. God, why would you want someone like me so bad? I mean you've got billions of people. You have all the power. Why do you care? Because I'm the God of all consuming love. I actually love you. That's what he says. I want you. The God of relationship. Yes, I'm a God of power, but I'm a God of consuming love. I want you. This request is strange that he wants us. It's remarkable. He's not needy. He doesn't want us because we meet a need. He is fully satisfied in the fellowship within the Godhead. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit delight in fellowship one with another. He's not lonely. He's not needy. He's fully satisfied. He's overflowing in love. That's why he wants you to give your body to him. Now when Paul says present your body, he means the word body here in this context means all that goes into making you you. He wants all of you. He doesn't just want the religious or the spiritual sentiment of I love you in a worship service. He wants the earthy, mundane, practical dimension of your life. The day in and day outness of it. He goes the whole thing I want. Well Lord, don't you mean that you want my sentiment and my loyalty in a worship service, but the rest of the day I mean I'm at the office or I'm pouring my heart and life into the children at home or cleaning the house, doing paperwork, solving problems, mowing the lawn, running errands, talking to friends, watching TV, relaxing some, trying to sort out different issues in my life. You want that? He goes yeah, yeah. I don't want just the moments that are commonly defined as the intensely spiritual. When you're witnessing, when you're praying for the sick, when you're in a worship time. He goes yeah, I want that too. But I want the earthly, the whole of your life. I want you to give it to me and I want you to know that I'm interacting with you and I have pleasure in it. How could you possibly have pleasure in the non-spiritual things of my life? Because here's why. Because in God's mind there are not spiritual and non-spiritual things. If we do any activity with our eye on him to please him it is spiritual. Changing diapers, doing the dishes, mowing the lawn, doing paperwork at the office, hanging out with a friend with your eye on the Lord saying Lord I just want to love you and please you. That is a spiritual activity. So Paul says I want your body. I mean the Lord wants the physical earthly dimension offered to him. That's part of the dynamic relationship he's after. He mentions this idea of living sacrifice. King David said I won't offer a sacrifice that costs me nothing. The living sacrifice is a reference to the extravagance. Now Paul obviously was referring to the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament. He goes he doesn't want those anymore. They've been complete by the blood of Jesus, the offering of Jesus. I don't want animal sacrifices. I want now the sacrifice but the extravagance. There's a note of extravagance in here. I want the full giving of yourself though the full giving of ourself is flawed and weak. Our all is small. Our all is weak. Our all is flawed but he goes I want it. It moves me. It touches me. I give you my all. The Lord says he's dynamic. He's awesome. He loves us with all of his strength. He goes I want your small all brought into the relationship. And it moves me because that's the kind of person I am. I'm the God of all consuming fire. I'm the God of burning love. You just don't grasp how engaged I am with you. Lord this is remarkable. The costly sacrifice dimension. It doesn't earn us the love of God. Our all is so small it could never earn anything from God. And it's so weak and flawed. It could never earn but our all expresses love and God's moved by our love even our weak love. I mean the widow gave two mites. And the Lord said oh the Lord's moved by that. She gave more than the rich guys because she gave her all. Even though the all was so small it moved God. I love it that we serve a God that's moved. By the giving of our self to be pleasing to him in even the mundane earthly dimensions of our life. Now paragraph D. Let's look at I mentioned five truths. Truth number one that Paul emphasized that I'm highlighting here in this message. That offering of yourself. That giving in extravagance that's flawed and weak but it's still sincere. Truth number one. It's holy to the Lord. Now in what sense is it holy? Because the word holy means set apart to God. There was furniture in the temple that was holy because it was set apart for God's use. Set apart for God's pleasure. The word holy has another application. It can mean perfect in purity. Flawless in perfection. Without any defilement whatsoever. Paul's not saying the offering of yourself has no defilement, no weakness in it. He's not using the word holy that way. He's using the word holy the other way. He's saying that offering though weak, though flawed is sacred to God. It moves him. It means something to him. Beloved the fact that it means something to him means it's worth doing even though the devil comes. Why do you keep doing it? You're such a failure. You're so weak. Just give up and give in. It doesn't matter anyway. Paul says that's not true. It is written. The offering of your body to him is holy. It is sacred. It moves him. He remembers it. It means something to him. That's what the word holy means here. Paul's not trying to convince them that they're flawless in their diligence and flawless in their humility. That's not what he's saying. He's saying it's sacred. Not sacred to us. It doesn't really move us. We give ourselves and we're more disgusted by the breakthrough we don't have than grateful for the breakthrough we do have. And Paul says readjust your mind. Renew your thinking. Think like God thinks and enjoy God enjoying you while you're growing in the things of God. Beloved enjoy the Lord enjoying you. This will change everything. If this isn't something you do. When I began to move in that direction, I enjoyed walking the Lord. I still have so much more breakthrough I need in my life in many areas. But I'm grateful that he's smiling. There has been breakthrough in other areas. There's some going forward and three steps forward, two steps back in different areas. I have gains but then I lose it. Then I gain it back. Then I lose it. Then a little time goes by. I gain a little bit back. And I think Lord I just want a steady breakthrough of victory. And the Lord says I know that you are flesh. I know that you're weak. But I love you. Keep giving yourself to me. I love you. So number one truth, it's holy. The devil will obscure that. He will tell you your offering is meaningless, not sacred to God. Number two truth, your offering is acceptable or pleasing. I like the word pleasing because when we hear the word acceptable, we might think of a kind of a legal cold stamping a passport. You know, okay, pass, acceptable, come on through the gate, next. But the word acceptable in its real meaning means far more than that. It means it touches the heart. God says I'll remember the cup of cold water you give. I'll remember the most mundane thing. I'll remember the words of encouragement, the little acts of service that you gave the person that nobody recognized. Matter of fact, the very person you served didn't thank you. They criticized you for serving them bad. But God says I remember. I remember. A lot of that goes on in homes. A whole lot of moms and wives that serve a whole lot, and they don't get a thank you, they get a what? You call this service? And the Lord says yes, I call that sacred to me and pleasing. Paul says line up. Renew your mind with what God says. We have this idea that the saints at Rome, maybe they were all super saints and it really was like they were stellar in all they did. They were not stellar in all they did. Their offering was pleasing to God, not because of the quality of what they offered, because of the quality of the God that received the offering. Beloved, it's because of him that this works. There's such joy, strength that comes when we believe that what we offer is sacred and pleasing. There's so much despair that comes when we fake our efforts, that God's not only ignoring them and they're irrelevant, he's actually displeased with them. He says there you go again, breaking my heart again. That's to the enemy's voice. I've gone to a lot of prayer meetings over the years and it's a little encouraged. Went to the prayer meeting, spirit of heaviness hit me. I left the prayer meeting worse off than when I came. I went, oh, that was horrible. And the Lord could answer, wasn't to me. Didn't move you, but it moved me. You told me you loved me. Thank you. I love it when you love me. I didn't feel anything. It was a horrible meeting. I felt worse. Well, I don't, says the Lord. He evaluates so differently than we do. Paragraph E, the will of God. He has a master plan for your life. He has a divine destiny determined for you. Beloved, you have a really good future. You really do. So you could use will of God, master plan, divine destiny. Those are all interchangeable terms you could use in this verse right here. The end of verse 2. Now here's the stumbling block of the will of God. The stumbling block of the will of God is, the assignment of God, the journey he's called us to, is small and little in the eyes of man. Meaning, he's called us to be faithful to him. We sign up to make a big impact. And that's good that we do. But he goes, well, I didn't really call you to make a big impact. I want you to impact some. I really called you to be faithful to me and to make some impact as you're going. But I, the Lord, can evaluate your impact far better than you can because you can't see. It looks like nothing's happening, and I see things are being touched and people are being moved. You can't. So the stumbling block of the will of God is the smallness of it. In Matthew 25, the famous parable, what Jesus says, on the last day, when we stand before him, he will say, you were faithful in that which was small. You were faithful in few things, little things. Now he says, I'm going to make you, I'm going to give you leadership over much. Then in Luke 19, he says the same thing. When you were faithful in very little things, 99.9999999% of the whole body of Christ in all of history, God's assignment is only to give you a very small sphere. There's only a few billigrams in history. Most of us, it's very small and very little. Collectively, we can make a bigger impact, but here's the problem. That creates a stumbling block to a lot of folks because they lose interest in the assignment of God in their life. Because the assignment of God in their life is first that they would be conformed to the image of Jesus. They would grow in love and humility. That's kind of what we sign up for, but we really sign up for more than that, but that's the first thing that he signs us up for. He goes, you're doing great. You're facing your failures, and you're growing in humility. You're believing in my love. You're responding more. You're doing great. You say, well, my ministry's little. Nobody's paying attention to me. I'm not very gifted, not very popular. Nobody's even paying attention. The Lord says, well, I am. Look, you're growing in love. You're growing in humility. You're right on track. You're kidding me. He goes, yeah, enjoy me enjoying you while you're pressing for a greater breakthrough. I'm all for pressing for the breakthrough, for more, but, beloved, there's only a small number of people who win the beauty contest, who win the Super Bowl, who have the biggest business with the billion dollar increase. There's only a few that have the mega ministries. There's only a few that are the number one in this and the champion in that. 99.9% never enter that realm, and the Lord says, that's okay. You're doing the assignment, the will of God in your life. It's a glorious thing. Look at Ephesians 2, verse 10. For we are his workmanship. This is a big statement. We were created in Christ Jesus for good works. God prepared him. There's this big picture guarantee of success because God is the one that prepared the works. He prepared your personality in your mother's womb. He gave you the calling at the right generation, at the right nation, at the right place in society in a way where you could grow in love and humility, and he's pleased with your growth. Beloved, it's about Jesus' leadership is what is being highlighted here. It's not that I'm a good learner. He's a good leader. It's not that I'm a good follower. He's a good teacher. I don't learn good or follow well, but he teaches well. That's why we get there. Philippians chapter one, Paul said, you can be confident. He's talking to the whole church in Philippi. He goes, do you have a yes in your spirit? You're genuine in your walk with God. You can be sure God will complete it. We lose sight of the excellence of his leadership, and we get focused on the weakness of our response, and we go, I'm a mess, and the Lord says, yeah, you are weak, but know this. My leadership is stronger than your weakness. You're on track. You're growing in love and humility. Yeah, well, I'm not worried about that, Lord. I'm worried about getting rich and famous and making an impact, and the Lord says, no, we'll do that in the age to come. You'll make some impact now, but that's later. You're going to live for billions of years. We have plenty of time for that. I got you on course, and a lot of folks, they have so much pain trying to find the will of God, but I have good news for you. The will of God is something that is supernaturally natural, meaning it just happens. It unfolds right in front of you. He leads us by the peace of God. Doors open. We're not even aware that he's opening, and situation happens, and we're set in place, and we don't even know how it happened, and we look back over it half the time. A lot of people are in anguish trying to get in the will of God, and they're already in it. The will of God is not something we put effort to get into. The will of God is something we get out of when we quench the Spirit or we go against him. The will of God, the first 10 years of my spiritual life, I was in anguish trying to find the will of God, and the next 30 years, I look back and go, I could've enjoyed the first 10 a lot more if I understood how it worked. I was in the will of God the whole time. That doesn't mean I didn't do a wrong event or go somewhere one day that wasn't right, but in the general flow of my life, I was in the will of God, but I was always trying to get in a room I was already in, and I was in anguish in my talking with God. He says, just enjoy our conversation. You're in so much anguish. I'm a good leader. I've got you on the right path. Then I look back years later and went, wow, I really was. Wow. Wish I could've enjoyed that on the way. I call him the God of the big target. Here's what I mean by the God of the big target. It's like we put a big bullseye. This bullseye is really big. It's like a mile-sized target. The bullseye is 100 yards each direction. I mean it's the size of a football field each direction. So I put you about 10 feet in front of it, put a blindfold, spin you around about 10 times, then give you a ball, say, now throw it. You throw it. I'll say, take the blindfold off. You hit the target. Well, it's 100 feet. It's 100 yards each way. You couldn't miss it. The Lord says, it's my leadership. It's not about your amazing fine-tuned response. Some folks think it's like the frequency on the radio. They're like listening, stressing. And they think that if they're so finely tuned, they'll get that razor-sharp precision. And exactly. And the Lord says, no, I understand flesh. I understand how you guys are. I'm the God of the big target. I make it easy. You're in the will of God. I have a plan for you. It's unfolding right in front of you. The issue is the will of God is mostly about growing in love and humility. The will of God is about what we do at the heart level, not nearly so much what city we live in or what job we take. Now, there are times where God gets specific about those. But a lot of folks are so concerned about what city they're in, I'm far more concerned with what they're doing in their heart, wherever they're at. That's the will of God. It's far more about that. It's far more about the interaction on the inside with God more than the location. And the reason, again, God does have locations, and He does give specific directives here and there. But most of our life, it's the interaction of our heart. We're in the will of God, and it's going well. It's going better than we can imagine. But we live in this despair and depression and feeling of hopelessness and aimlessness because it's not going right. And the Lord says, Actually, it is. It's going better than you think. When the veil is lifted and you no longer see things dimly, because Paul said, We see things dimly in this age. When you see clearly, you'll see that my leadership was with you. I was walking with you, and you were hitting the target. You grew in love and humility, and you ended up in the right geographic area. You ended up right. I led you. I got you there. And every now and then, He'll use a dramatic intervention to do it, but mostly it's supernaturally natural. He's leading us in that way. Paul says in paragraph F, he goes, You're going to prove. You're going to experience. You're going to put on display in your life the excellence of God's leadership over your life. He goes, I guarantee you, you are, because He's that good of a leader. He evaluates your life through mercy, and He sees it as holy and acceptable, what you're offering, and now He's talking about His good leadership over your life. And then He gives three words. He says, None of the enemy attacks all three of these. Number one, God's will over your life is good. You know that He leads you in a way that His glory is magnified in your life, and you benefit others. But, beloved, He benefits you too. Paul says it's good for you, not just good for His kingdom and His glory and others. It's actually good for you. It enriches your life. It's fruitful. Well, I don't see a lot of fruit. Well, the Lord sees more fruit than you see, because the Lord evaluates different than we do. He says it's good. The devil comes along and says, Your life is aimless. It's fruitless. It's going nowhere, doing nothing. Paul says the will of God, the leadership of God over your life is good. That is your confession. That is your testimony. It's not like the Lord says, Well, you know, you're expendable in the cause of the Great Commission, so I'm going to waste you and break you while I'm expanding my kingdom. No, the Lord says, My will of God is actually good for you. The circumstances may be difficult, but your spirit man and your inheritance and your reward and your revelation, your encounter with the Lord, it is enriched and strengthened by the will of God, by doing the will of God. God says, I have you in mind, too, when I design the plan for your life. You're not just an expendable soldier. You're my dear child. I love you. The next one, number two, the will of God is pleasing, meaning it's not just you're going to be stuck in some teeth-grinding assignment. Yes, externally, there are really hard, difficult circumstances at various seasons, but he goes, There will be a pleasurable encounter. You and me, our hearts, we'll touch each other. And then in the age to come, Jesus said in Matthew 25, He'll say to you, You were faithful in little things. Enter into the joy. Enter into the full pleasure of everything I design. He goes, The will of God, my leadership will be seen as pleasurable. You'll see it. The devil is telling you, If you get wholehearted, you give yourself fully to the Lord, you'll end up burnt out, bruised, left behind, unsatisfied. Paul says, You will be satisfied. It's exactly opposite. Thus says the Lord. And he goes on and he says, His leadership is perfect. Beloved, Jesus has all the information in front of him. I mean, he has the 70-year plan for your life, the 3 to 5-year seasonal, incremental, short-term assignments. He has the billion-year plan. They all merge together. No detail is lost to him when he's planning for your life. He merges them all together. And not only is every detail clear to him, his leadership is skillful. He says, I promise you I will get you there if you have a yes in your spirit to me. You can enjoy the journey with me. You don't have to have so much stress and strain and anxiety about it. And beloved, on the last day you'll have no regrets. You'll go, Oh Lord, this is better than I thought. This is better than I thought. Your leadership was perfect. I actually got there and I did the will of God and my heart did grow. And I'm carrying fruit from this age to the age to come. Wow, it worked. I wish I would have felt better about it when I was doing it. And the Lord might say, If you knew the word, you would have felt better about it. Take about 2 more minutes. Top of page 2. Let's take 2 minutes. And we're going to pray for you. He goes on. He says, Don't be conformed to this world. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. I just want to touch those phrases a moment each. One of the ways we're conformed to this world. Again, there's 3 or 4 applications that are vital. But I'm only touching one right now. We're conformed. He says, Don't evaluate your life by the standards of the world. Only a few people win the beauty contest, win the Super Bowl, win the championship, have the biggest ministry, the biggest business. Only a few people are real beautiful, real popular, real powerful. He says, Don't make that the standard of how you evaluate your obedience to me and my leadership in your life. Or you'll live in despair and depression. Many believers. It's this one point. They are conformed to the world. I mean, they're not embracing the lust of the culture. But they're embracing the standards of the culture when they evaluate their life and conclude their life as being wasted and God left them behind. Versus, I didn't leave you behind. He says, You're conformed to the world. Reject that standard. Take the standards of my word. And when he says, Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Let your mind agree with what my word says. Now, he's talking here in verse 2 about these principles right before that statement. He's talking about these truths in verse 1 and 2. Particularly. Not only. He means more than that. But beloved, our emotions are transformed when our mind is changed. And we can change our mind. We don't have to live by whatever thought we wake up with in the morning. Some people wake up in the morning. They feel afraid. They feel depressed. They feel despair. And they think, Well, that's kind of a thought I woke up with. I guess that's my lot for today. That's just who I am. That's a lie. You can take that thought. You can reject it. You can renew your mind with the word of God. And says, Wait a second. My offering to the Lord is sacred to Him. It's holy. My offering to the Lord is pleasing to Him. Not irrelevant. His leadership over my life is good for me. I'm going somewhere. My future is good. It's fruitful. Even though I can't see it all. It's pleasing. Lord, I'm interacting with You. Your leadership is perfect. Paul's talking about renewing our mind. Even with these truths applying. Speak the word of God over your life. Don't let the devil have the word. If you wake up in depression. You wake up in despair. That's not the mood that you're... It's not your lot for that day. Challenge it. Resist it. Set your mind according to the word. You're being taught the word. So you can line up with the word. And your emotions and your character will be transformed when you do that. Well, amen and amen. Let's stand. Let's have the worship team come. We're going to have...