In this sermon, the speaker focuses on the importance of living a holy and pure life as Christians. He begins by discussing how God's attributes are clearly seen in creation, and yet many people fail to acknowledge and glorify Him. The speaker then transitions to the practical aspect of the epistle, emphasizing the need for believers to no longer walk in the ways of the Gentiles. He highlights the importance of spiritual growth through prayer, studying the Word of God, scripture memorization, and meditation, urging listeners to take advantage of the spiritual wealth they have been given.

As we come to verse 17, we really do come now to the practical aspect of the epistle. Paul moved in that direction in the beginning of chapter 4, but the first 16 verses or so, he concentrates primarily on the subject of unity among believers, and we've talked about that over the past few sessions together, the importance of unity, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace and so forth. And now he moves into really discussing the issue of purity. And purity is a vital issue, because as Christians, we are to be living a holy life. And that's what he's going to be reminding us of as we get into these verses here. So he says, this I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk. Now, when the Bible speaks of walking, it's referring to our manner of life. It's referring to our behavior or our lifestyle. And so what Paul is saying here now is that we are no longer to be having the kind of lifestyle that we once had. A person who is a Christian is a person who has undergone a drastic change, a change inside that results in a change outside. And quite honestly, if there's no change outside, then we have to question whether or not there's actually been a change inside. And I think today, maybe more than ever before, we're seeing there's a lot of confusion over this. And there are people who are claiming to be Christians, but yet you would never, ever in a million years by studying their life, draw that conclusion yourself. You just can't see that their behavior is anything like the behavior that's described in the Bible. But if we really are the people of God, there is going to have been a change that has taken place in our lives. And we're going to keep changing. We're going to keep growing more and more into the image of Christ. That's the ultimate goal, that we would become like Jesus. And so throughout our lives, God is working in us to make us more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ. So Paul is reminding them of the necessity of a new lifestyle, a godly lifestyle. Now, he refers to the Gentiles and he tells us basically what's happening with the Gentile world. And here Gentile is a synonym for unbeliever. Paul is talking about the unbelieving world. And he mentions that we, of course, used to be part of that, but we're no longer part of it. But this is what he says. He says the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind. You see, this has been the problem of man from the very beginning. Man from the beginning has conducted himself the way he thinks best rather than submitting to what God has said in his word. And that is why the history of the human race is as it is. It's a deplorable mess from beginning to the present day. And it's all because of man walking in the futility or the emptiness or the worthlessness of his mind, his own thinking process, feeling that his thinking is sufficient for how to conduct himself. But over and over again, history has proven that man's thinking is not sufficient. And we're in the process right now, unfortunately, of having that proven once again, as we see our world and as we see our country going from bad to worse and we're being led astray basically by wrong thinking. People are thinking that we don't need God. God should not be a part of our lives. God should not be a part of our system of government. And look at how bad things continue to become. But this is, as I said, this is history. This is what has been happening from the very beginning. And this is the explanation for every civilization that's come and gone. Man refusing to submit himself to God, thinking that he can do it himself and man ends up pretty much destroying himself in the process. So he says, walking in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart, who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness to work all impurity with greediness. So this is what happens when man puts his own thinking process above the word of God. He becomes alienated from the life of God. His heart becomes hardened and then he gives himself over to deplorable activity. In Romans one, we have a very similar sort of a thing described by the Apostle Paul. It might be a good idea to turn over there and just read through the process as he lays it out there. It's similar, but there's a bit more detail given to us by the apostle in Romans chapter one. So if we pick up, let's see in. Verse 20 of Romans one, for since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and divine nature so that men are without excuse, because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts. Remember what he said in the futility of their mind? Here's the similarity became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened, professing to be wise. They became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness and the lust of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions for even their women exchange the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise, also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error, which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting. You see the parallel there. Very similar passage. Paul here, as I said, just gives a bit more detail on really what he says in verse 19, who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness. And this is what we see being repeated once again in history. And, you know, Romans one and Ephesians four here, they are really declarations of the cycle of human history. And this has happened over and over and over again as you study history, as you look at the various civilizations that have come and gone. You find that each civilization begins with somewhat of a fear of God, somewhat of a moral standard. And then through a process of time, they set that aside and they go more and more into trusting in human wisdom and philosophy and so forth. And then they end in a state of lewdness and living primarily for uncleanness. And so here we are again, we're in the tail end of that cycle once again. Hopefully this is the last time through. That's what I'm hoping for, that it doesn't get repeated all over again, but it seems like we're in the last time through the cycle. But what a description. Here in verse 19 of the world we live in, isn't it? Who being past feeling and you see today that people, it just seems they no longer have a conscience. They no longer have any sort of conviction. They no longer have any shame whatsoever about the lifestyle they live, the things they do. Oh, how desperately we need for the power of the spirit of God to come up on people and to begin to convict them of sin. I've been reading the biography of a missionary in China back about 100 years ago. Not not quite that long, actually. Jonathan Goforth was his name. And in one portion of the biographies talking about how they were in this particular village and they were preaching to the people and nothing they seem to say had any impact on them whatsoever. They just continue to mock and to jeer and to threaten and to just completely disregard what they were saying. And about three or four different people attempted preaching to them. And, you know, we're hoping to break through and to get them to listen. And nothing, nothing was breaking through. And finally, Jonathan said, let me try this one more shot at it. And he opened his Bible to the passage where Jesus spoke of it being more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for Capernaum or the various cities that he mentioned there. And he read that verse to him and he explained to him, of course, these are Chinese. They don't know Sodom and Gomorrah. They don't know anything about the scriptures. But he reads the verse to him. Then he explains the situation that Jesus is referring to. And suddenly a great fear fell upon these people and they were more than happy to listen to the message. And, you know, as I read that, I thought that's what we need today, a restoration to the fear of God, because that's what's absent. And so people have given themselves over to lewdness because their past feeling they no longer have any conviction about any of this. But remember, Jesus said when the Holy Spirit comes, he will convict the world of sin. That tells me we need a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit because we need the conviction of sin, don't we? We need the conviction of sin in the church. You know, we need it outside, granted, but hey, we need it inside as well. We talk to people all the time and it's amazing the things that are going on, the sinful practices that are being carried out by people who sit in a church week in and week out, claim to be Christians. But there's nothing new, evidently, because Paul was dealing with that right here. And he says to them, don't be walking as the Gentiles walk as you used to walk. There's to be a drastic change. And so he says in verse 20, but you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. So Jesus doesn't teach us to remain in our sinful lifestyles, does he? He calls us to come out of that. We have not learned from Jesus that we can keep on sinning, that grace may abound. We have not learned from Jesus that we can live any way we want and still go to heaven, have we? We've learned that from some preachers, but we haven't learned that from Jesus. It's amazing how often the subject comes up when we're doing the to every man in answer broadcast. We had an interesting call this past Friday, Pastor Chuck and I were, you know, a guy was basically saying, hey, I've been living like the devil for a lot of years and I thought I was a Christian and I just realized that I can't live this way and still get to heaven and I'm not living that way anymore. But what do you think I should tell my friends? Because they all think that everything's OK. They're living sinful lives and they think they're Christians and they're going to go to heaven. So Pastor Chuck rattled off Galatians five, first Corinthians six, Ephesians five. And we said, here's your job. Go tell them this. And basically, in all these passages, there's the warning that if you're practicing these things, you're not going to inherit the kingdom of God. So we have not learned sinful lifestyle toleration from Jesus Christ. This is sneaking into the church, though. And there are a lot of people, even among the so-called evangelical church, which is supposed to be the Bible believing wing of the church that are. Wanting to be a little more open and a little more tolerant of sinful behaviors. And particularly when it comes to the issue of homosexuality, there's a reluctance to say that's wrong, that sinful want to sort of downplay it a little bit, but it's all part of the politically correct influence on the church. They're just coming out. I don't know if you read about it this week or heard about it, but they're just coming out with the revision of the new international version of the Bible, the NIV, as some call it, the nearly inspired version. So they're coming out with today's nearly inspired version, and this is a gender sensitive translation and they've got all these people speaking on their behalf about how this is really more accurate and so forth. But, you know, it really is bottom line, a compromise with the politically correct agenda. You know, we've been going for a long, long time, couple thousand years with the scriptures as they are, and it's been OK. You know, there's plenty of women that have been saved by reading that, you know, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation that hasn't kept women back. Oh, no, this is only for men. I'm excluded from God's plan. But, you know, it just the thing that irks me, as you can tell, I'm irked. The thing that irks me is that it's a compromise with the politically corrected agenda. It's a Christian capitulation to humanism. And that's where we always go wrong, buckling under to the pressure and not, you know, holding our ground. And so it's sad, but we have not learned Christ. If indeed you have heard him and taught by him as a truth is in Jesus, the truth is in Jesus. Well, there's so many things here that we can talk about, but the truth is in Jesus. And of course, that's the real target of the politically correct agenda is truth itself, isn't it? Because political correctness comes from the postmodernistic philosophy of hyper relativism. And according to relativism, there is no absolute truth. Truth is individualized. If it's true for you, that's great, but it can't be true for everyone. And that mentality is permeating the culture and it's, again, creeping into the church. But we have an objective truth to stand by. We believe that the word of God is objective truth. It's absolute truth. It's not negotiable. It's not true for me, but not necessarily for you. It's true. And that makes it true for everyone. The truth is in Jesus, and so there is truth. Few years ago, I was sharing the Lord with a man and it ended up being more like a philosophical debate and it was about truth and he just insisted there was no truth. And I was kind of frustrated because it didn't matter what I told him, you know, on a philosophical level, we just weren't getting anywhere. And suddenly the Lord spoke to me and said, drop the philosophy and just get to the point that I am the truth. And so I just turned to him. I said, you know, you're telling me that there is no truth, but I know a man who said he was the truth and he rose from the dead to prove it. So I'm going to take his word over yours. And you'd be amazed at how he responded to that. He buckled under that. And we've got to remember, truth is not just objective propositions, but truth is a person. Truth is the person of Jesus Christ. He's the ultimate truth. And so as the truth is in Jesus. And so here is the particular truth that he's talking about here that you put off concerning your former conduct, the old man, which grows corrupt according to deceitful lust and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. So this is what Jesus has taught us. He's taught us that we are to put off our former conduct, the old man. You know, the gospel is the power of God to deliver people from sin. How is it that there are so many people in church today in bondage to sin? What's happening? Why do we have people that are addicted to pornography? Why do we have people that are involved in bizarre sexual behaviors? Why do we have people that are addicted to drinking and to drugs and things in the church? Why is this? Is that what we learn from Jesus? Is that the message of the gospel? Well, you know, God can save your soul, but he can't really help you out beyond that. You better go to the psychiatrist. He can help you. Maybe, you know, he can at least sedate you or console you, take away your guilt, make you not feel so bad about your sin. And, you know, I'm being a little bit hard, but you know, this is what's happening in the church today. But the gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God to deliver us from sin, to break the chains of sin in our lives. And if we're going on in sin, it's because we haven't really received Christ as we should. We haven't appropriated his gift of salvation to us. He came to destroy the work of the devil, not to leave us partially in the devil's grip. But he calls us to do certain things. He calls us to put off our former conduct, the old man. He calls us to put it off, just like you take off dirty clothing and cast it aside. So that filthy lifestyle that we were living were to take it off, cast it aside. I want you to notice something here in regard to the old man. He says that the old man grows corrupt according to deceitful lust. This is a frightening thing, because what it's indicating is that. We get worse, the farther we go in life, the old man grows corrupt. You think of a newborn. There's an innocence about a newborn child, isn't there? And that innocence remains, you know, for a period of time, depending on how they're brought up. But inevitably, that innocence fades away. Because of the internal issue of sin and because of the external influences. And depending on your environment and things, you know, you can go to a point that is inconceivable to some. You can't imagine that a human being can stoop to that low of a lifestyle. But this is what happens. Man in sin just goes from bad to worse. And this is why when you see sometimes, you know, older people who have spent their life, maybe not living overtly immoral or wicked lives, but yet living lives of selfishness and rejection of God, this is why you see sometimes in their later years that they really seem to become more and more depraved. Because this is what happens with human nature. It grows more corrupt as time goes on. But we're to put off that and we have the power to do that now. And in contrast, we're to be renewed in the spirit of our mind and that you put on the new man, which was created according to God in righteousness and true holiness. So we are to do two things. We're to put off the old and we're to replace it with the new. So we're to put off that old lifestyle, but we're to put on a new lifestyle. And I said this before, but I think it's an important point. The Christian life is not just the absence of certain vices. The Christian life is the presence of a number of godly characteristics and traits and virtues. So it's not just, you know, the putting aside of certain things that's certainly part of it, but it's the bringing into your life of godly things. Now, he says here that we are to be renewed in the spirit of our minds. The renewing work is done through the influence of the word of God upon our minds. That's how our minds are renewed. Now, think about this. Unless you were brought up in a Christian home with the constant influence of the scriptures. Your mind has probably, for the most part, been influenced by the philosophy of the world. And there needs to be a cleansing of that. There needs to be a renewing of the mind. If we as Christians are still giving our minds over to a large extent to the things of the world. If we're spending all of our time, you know, concerned with the TV programs and the newest movies and the talk shows and, you know, this person's philosophy on life and that and so forth, we're still contributing to the old man in a sense. We might not be thinking in those terms because, you know, well, I'm a Christian now, but I, you know, I still enjoy these things. Well, is your mind being renewed by these things? I think not. Our minds can only be renewed by the influence of the word of God upon our minds. And that's why it's so important that we saturate our minds with the word of God. Not just coming to Bible study, which is a good thing and certainly part of it, but that we ourselves have a devotional life, if you want to call it that, a commitment to the word, to being in the word, to reading it, to meditating on it, to thinking about it, to memorizing it, all of these sorts of things. And, you know, it's the person who takes that approach to the word, who is most obviously renewed in their mind. Those are the people that you look at and just say, wow, that is a new person. That is a different person. And that's what God wants to see rot in each and every one of us. He wants our minds to be renewed because as our minds are renewed, we are then in effect putting on the new man and the new man notice is created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. Now, remember, the first man was created in the image of God, Adam, but Adam sinned and the image of God was marred. And so when Adam had a son, it says that that son. That he was in the image of his father, Adam, and we have born the image of Adam. Since then, we have been tainted by that same sin. Now, through Jesus Christ and his work of redemption and through the Holy Spirit's regenerating work in our lives, we are recreated once again back into the image of God. But the image of God that's stamped in us upon the new birth has to be nourished and cultivated. And you see, it's possible that even though the image of God has been replanted in us, that we could neglect it. And the image of God that is supposed to be shining forth from us is never really seen. Because of our neglect of it, but as we are renewed in the spirit of our mind, what's happening is the image of God that's been stamped in us now through regeneration is. Growing, developing, maturing, and so as time goes on, we are starting to look more and more like God intended us to be. When he first created man and even beyond that, because we're not being created back into the image of Adam, we're created according to God, Jesus Christ being conformed into his image. And so again, through the influence of the word upon our minds, that's how we're renewed. And we talked about it a bit in our last study, but once again, this is the secret. This is the key. And the people that have attained the most God likeness are the people who have been saturated in the word. They're the ones that attain most of the likeness of God, because that renewing thing is happening in them as they subject themselves to the word. And so as we think about being renewed to the scriptures, let's think about some of the different ways that we can just sort of connect with the scriptures. There is a number of things that I think that we ought to be doing in relation to the scriptures as Christians. And the first and the most obvious is that we should be reading them. But I'm going to make some distinctions here that are clear distinctions, but maybe initially they don't. You know, you don't think in these terms, but these are important things. But beginning, first of all, if we're wanting to have our minds renewed, we need to just read the scriptures. We need to get the scriptural view of life planted into our mind. And as we just read the scriptures themselves, just as often as we can go through the Bible. You know, today they've got a number of different plans to take you through the Bible and X amount of time. Those are good things. Going through the Bible is a good thing. Reading through it maybe once a year or, you know, maybe once every two years or twice a year or whatever, but you're just reading through it. And as you're doing that, there's just something happening. There's a supernatural thing going on. There's a cleansing. There's a renewing taking place and you're starting to think differently. You might not even realize it's happening as you're reading through it. You might not realize that anything significant is happening, but then you'll find that you'll think something that you. You hadn't thought that way before. Somebody will ask you a question, you'll respond in a way uncharacteristic of how you would have normally responded. And so what you see happening is there's the influence of the scripture coming upon you as you're reading through. Now, then there is also what you would call meditating on the scriptures. There's a bit of distinction here. And reading is important, I think, to get the bigger picture. We use the analogy of missing the forest because of the trees or missing the trees because of the forest, you know, that analogy. And that's kind of what we're talking about here. There's, you know, the overview of the forest, if you will, where you're you're looking at the forest and that would be just, you know, you're reading. But then there's the inspection of the individual trees. A forest is made up of trees. And so in our renewing of our minds, we approach the scriptures with that general sense of reading through them. But then also we want to have that time where we're more closely inspecting them, where we're looking in more detail at what they're saying. And this would be the time of meditating upon the scriptures where we're not taking a large portion at a time, but rather we're taking maybe just a few verses and breaking them down and thinking about them and asking ourselves questions about them and, you know, really just spending time mulling it over. The word meditation, it implies to choose something over. That's the idea behind it. And so we're in just reading. You know, you're reading through and you're not necessarily stopping. I mean, you might stop here and there. Think about it a bit. But, you know, you're on your way through. You're on a journey. You're passing through and you're just looking, you know, as you go along. I see that. I see that there. OK, I see that. And here's this happened over there. But then as you meditate, suddenly, oh, I'm going to stop right here. Let me let me look at this more closely. And that's an important thing. And of course, it's in meditation that that real blessing is promised. Remember, blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord and in his life meditates day and night. So that time of meditation. And then there's also another distinction that we could draw, and that would be studying. Studying would be similar to meditating. But as I think about studying, I think of then drawing on other resources. I can read and meditate on my Bible with my Bible alone. I don't need any help. I just, you know, rely upon the spirit of God. But if I want to really get down and study a passage, what I will often do is I will take advantage of the many helps that are available. And we are, of all people, most blessed when it comes to this. In the English language, we have got the best stuff ever written. Supplemental stuff for, you know, growing and understanding the word of God. It's amazing when you get connected with people from other nations and other languages and you start ministering to them and you're encouraging people in the ministry and so forth. The amazing thing, the sad thing is to see the lack of resources. And we're improving in that area. But in the English language, we have so much. We can get out the Bible dictionary or the word study help or some of the great commentaries that have been written. And, you know, this isn't a pitch for the chapel store, but anything in there is it's really good stuff. We only carry the best stuff. We have a standard and we're not going to carry anything that is going to go below that standard. As a matter of fact, I was talking to a friend who oversees that ministry the other day and he was asking me about a set of commentaries that you think we should bring him in. And historically, they're excellent. They have probably the best history and culture and language background of any commentary. But they have a serious liberal thread running through them. And I said, you know, we can't bring those into the store. We can't give those out to our people because we're sending a mixed message. So do you have a time of study? And then, of course, today we have the advantage of tape recordings. We've had that advantage for a long time. We have the advantage of CD-ROM now. We have the MP3 that's been developed. And I don't know if you're aware of this or not, but you can get all of Pastor Chuck's whole through the Bible series on the MP3 disc. I think it's like six discs or something, the entire Bible. And you can just, you know, pick up a little MP3 player nowadays for under $100 and you can go through the entire Bible. There are numerous things to assist us in our study of the word of God. You say, what do you know all this stuff you're talking about? I mean, I don't have time. Do you know that I got to watch TV every night? Yeah, you're just the person I'm talking to. You don't have to watch TV. This is the stuff you need to be doing. This is what we're supposed to be doing to grow and to develop. And if we're stunted in our growth, it's because we're not availing ourselves of all the things that God has given us. And remember this to whom much is given, much is required. And I wonder someday if the Lord's not going to say to us, what did you do with all that I gave you? You had more than almost anybody. And, you know, quite honestly, we as a community of Christians, we are very, very wealthy. Spiritually, and there's a great side to that, but there's a downside to it, and that is our accountability level is higher. The fourth thing is scripture memorization. David said, Thy word, I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. Have you committed the scriptures to memory? You know, that is a wonderful exercise. It's a wonderful practice. It's something that is great to do for you. It benefits you tremendously because, of course, if you know something, it's much easier for God to bring it to your mind in a circumstance. But it's also important to be able to communicate to other people, to be able to tell them what God says in his word, to be able to speak forth for him because you've hidden his word in your heart. And scripture memorization is something that we all ought to be committed to. When I was a young Christian, I remember the first portion of scripture that really grabbed hold of me was Isaiah 53. I was just so astounded with Isaiah 53 because it was a prophecy 700 years before the birth of Jesus of everything that happened upon the cross. And I remember just being so moved by Isaiah 53. I went in my bedroom and I just memorized Isaiah 53. And over the years, there have been certain passages that I just I want to commit them to memory. Now, some people say, oh, I, you know, I have the worst memory. But God will help you with that. You might not be able to remember anything else. But boy, if you can remember the word of God. Sometimes people put the word of God to music and that's a great way. Music seems to you can remember anything if it's put to music, can't you? Things that you never want to remember or even know all the stupid jingles we've heard on TV over the years and stuff. You know, how is it that we know word by word those things? Well, because there's a melody that goes along and it just kind of clicks together. And, you know, sometimes you can find some great melodies with scripture put to them. And that can be a real help. You know, I'm confident that every one of us can learn some scriptures. You know, there are people who have memorized the entire Bible. Can you imagine that? There was a man in the Second World War. He was a general. His name was General Harrison. And this man. Now, you know, sometimes you say, oh, you know, scripture remembers. I'm so busy. Well, being a general in the Second World War, I'd say this guy was fairly busy as well. But he memorized the entire Bible in the King James Version, and he memorized the New Testament in the Revised Version. So he had the entire Bible memorized in one version and half of it memorized in another version. And of course, a person like that would be a walking Bible. And so it's amazing what God will grace us to do if we will apply ourselves. And maybe you thought, well, you know, I'm just not very good at memorizing. Take a portion of scripture. And. Start memorizing it. Write it down on a little card. Carry it with you in your pocket. Look at it several times throughout the day. And you know what? A few days and it'll be yours. And you'll have that with you. And you'll find that God will bring it up. He'll bring it up in your mind to encourage you to come for you. He'll bring it up in your conversation to challenge or comfort somebody else. And so these are the things that I think we need to be doing if we're going to do, as Paul said here, be renewed in the spirit of our minds. Get into the word of God. Commit it to memory. Study it. Take advantage of the great tools that God has blessed us with. Meditate on it. Get all that other junk, that meaningless, worthless, stupid, nonsensical stuff that takes up our time. You know, if any of you watch Oprah Winfrey or any of that, shame on you. That stuff is just stupid. You know, seriously, what do they do? They just sit there and talk about nothing and just it's all just dumb, stupid stuff. And it's just it's such a waste. But we as Christians, this is what we're doing. And then you've got people all over the world. They just dying to get a piece of the Bible, a page of the Bible. They could only get a page to just take it and meditate on it. And here we are, we've got Bible stack ten high and we've got all these resources and we're, you know, we're too busy with this other nonsense. God help us. We're called to have our minds renewed. And it's because our minds are not renewed that we're not really walking like the new men created after God and righteousness and true holiness. And that's why the church is limping along today. We don't want to be limping along in these days. We want to be moving along at God's pace. There's work to be done. And so God help us read your Bible, meditate on it, study it, memorize it. And in doing so, you will be renewing your mind and you'll be amazed at what God will do. It says in the Psalms that he sent his word and he healed them. Is your mind messed up? Is your mind like a trash can? You know what? The word of God will clean it. The word of God will purge it. Jesus said, you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. God will cleanse you and he'll fill you with himself and he'll fill you with his power. His word is power. Remember, and God said, let there be light. God spoke the world into existence. And that very word that God spoke is the very word that he wants to speak into our beings. And he wants to give us his life and his power as he speaks to us. So God help us to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. We'll go ahead and say verse 25 and the remainder of the chapter for next week. Let's pray. Father, help us, Lord. Help us, Lord, not to be like the other Gentiles. Lord, help us not to be led by our own thinking processes about life. Help us, Lord, to be men and women that are under the authority of the word of God. And Lord, forgive us for wasting precious time on things that are vain and useless and worthless in light of eternity. And help us, Lord, to avail ourselves of all that you've done for us, to get your word to us, to preserve it for us. And to enable us, Lord, to be in a situation where we can study it. And we can freely meditate on it and read it and memorize it and spread it. Lord, forgive us for taking all that for granted. And help us to be men and women of the word. Renewed in our minds and being made more like you. In Jesus name. Amen.